RRP: £9.99 Details

Save: £3.69 (37%)

& FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, August 11 on your first eligible order to UK or Ireland. Details

Or fastest delivery Tomorrow, August 9. Order within 2 hrs 59 mins. Details

In stock.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

[{"displayPrice":"£6.30","priceAmount":6.30,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"6","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"30","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"VtWsgItNehz2qmCAf1YmdX66iBJrHTF53L4Pd3tZyeGgcwlNmyNNRrS7FCNA1WmfaabICKjq34nA0y3%2Fa1YYweGclfUAfFmM7FDgZF2c7XV%2BOsnOXXe1j5TOolTOSX6D","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"£1.74","priceAmount":1.74,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"1","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"74","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"NEPlAlK%2FVPcxEVr5lmSDOrtVTIabsV6ipeorqLCVnPrKMDrGHTxH1pD9NapTOU7glgMeAzdFv%2FL%2FYJpI7ox%2F4NE5Mq%2F1hon0JJCzlfgpxOq56wafFGTN98m459Ptb9r4t1WeRV9elyks%2BXFRjswWgbDL%2BdAA0iN6xL2wj1yw2zR2tyKnbhAbNpwJx1MamL7%2F","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

££6.30 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Dispatches from

Amazon

Sold by

Amazon

Details

Dispatches from

Amazon

Sold by

Amazon

Return policy: Returnable within 30 days of receipt

Add gift options

£2.80 delivery August 11 - 13. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Second Glance LTD

Share <Embed>

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the author

Joseph Heller

Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Paperback – 23 Jun. 2011

by Joseph Heller (Author)

6,888 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Catch-22 Series

See all formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

£4.99

—

Audible Audiobooks, Unabridged

"Please retry"

£0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

£12.65

£11.50

£4.98

Paperback

"Please retry"

£6.30

£6.29

£1.74

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

£30.00

£7.16

Apply £0.80 voucher. Terms Limited-time offer

Buy 4, save 5% . Terms | Shop items

Note: This item is eligible for FREE Click and Collect without a minimum order subject to availability. Details

Enhance your purchase

Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel's strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage.

Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. His real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. If Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions then he is caught in Catch-22: if he flies he is crazy, and doesn't have to; but if he doesn't want to he must be sane and has to. That's some catch...

ISBN-10

9780099529125
ISBN-13

978-0099529125
Edition

1st
Publisher

Vintage Classics
Publication date

23 Jun. 2011
Language

English
Dimensions

12.9 x 3.4 x 19.8 cm
Print length

544 pages
See all details

The Booker Prize 2022

Discover this year's longlisted books
Learn more

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your basket.

Choose items to buy together.

by Joseph Heller Paperback
£6.30
In stock.
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
by J. D. Salinger Paperback
£7.15
In stock.
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
by Harper Lee Paperback
£7.35
In stock.
Sent from and sold by Amazon.

Joseph Heller
414
Paperback
40 offers from £2.13
J. D. Salinger
27,292
Paperback
44 offers from £2.32
Ray Bradbury
31,527
Paperback
38 offers from £3.06
Harper Lee
63,172
Paperback
53 offers from £1.80
Kurt Vonnegut
2,265
Paperback
34 offers from £1.78
Kurt Vonnegut
11,662
Hardcover
28 offers from £5.52

Special offers and product promotions

Save £0.80 with this voucher. Here's how (terms and conditions apply) Limited-time offer
Buy at least 4 items of your choice and save 5%. Offered by Amazon.co.uk. Shop items

From the Publisher

Product description

Review

Never has a book been laughed and wept over so many times, Guardian

To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one -- Stephen King

Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense -- Harper Lee

The war novel to end all war novels, Independent

Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this, Financial Times

About the Author

Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. In 1961, he published Catch-22, which became a bestseller and, in 1970, a film. He went on to write such novels as Something Happened, God Knows, Picture This, Closing Time (the sequel to Catch-22), and Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. Heller died in December 1999.

Start reading Catch-22 on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0099529122
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Classics; 1st edition (23 Jun. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780099529125
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099529125
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.4 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 5,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 58 in Parodies (Books)
- 106 in Satires
- 368 in Fiction Classics (Books)

Customer reviews:
6,888 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Joseph Heller

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Joseph Heller was born in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. He served as a bombardier in the Second World War and then attended New York University and Columbia University and then Oxford, the last on a Fullbright scholarship. He then taught for two years at Pennsylvania State University, before returning to New York, where he began a successful career in the advertising departments of Time, Look and McCall's magazines. It was during this time that he had the idea for Catch-22. Working on the novel in spare moments and evenings at home, it took him eight years to complete and was first published in 1961. His second novel, Something Happened was published in 1974, Good As Gold in 1979 and Closing Time in 1994. He is also the author of the play We Bombed in New Haven.

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		18%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

R D Windmill

Don't Bother !!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2019

Verified Purchase

I read this as it was on a list of one of these ‘Books you must read before you die...etc’. On this list was the likes of Moby Dick, The Count of Monte Cristo and On the Road. All those books were rewarding in their own way. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Catch 22. I pushed myself to finish it, but it was ultimately unfulfilling.
Other than the chapters, Major Major and Mrs Daneeka, the book is a disjointed and rambling and at times it just poorly written, not making any sense. I found the Characters two-dimensional stereotypes and all the Women are portrayed as Whores. Please don’t get me started on the historical inaccuracies. I know it isn’t a factual book, and when it was written in the late fifties and published in early sixties it was a ground-breaking work, especially so soon after WWII. I also understand that this most likely inspiration for the likes of M*A*S*H and Dr Strangelove with their own take on the ridiculousness of War.
The biggest thing is the lack of humour, on so many occasions the not funny joke was repeated again and again just ensure it was never funny in the first place. Maybe it is just a book of it’s time… but that time has passed.

56 people found this helpful

Helpful

Darren Bull

Sorry,don't get it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 December 2018

Verified Purchase

I started to read this because i thought i should. After several chapter's of nothing happening i checked the reviews to see if I was missing something, I agree with the 8%. Unless I'm just not clever enough get it, Emperors New clothes if you ask me..

37 people found this helpful

Helpful

Stark Zimmer

What did I just read?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2018

Verified Purchase

This was the most disjointed, random and ridiculous story I’ve ever read. There is, in fact, no storyline, just a bunch of bonkers so-called soldiers whining and engaging in vulgar activities. It was a struggle to finish but I had to for the sake of completeness, thus creating my own catch 22. I can’t believe this is recommended as one of the must-read books of all time. A total non-humorous bore.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

War and Absurdism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2019

Verified Purchase

Joseph Heller spent years writing this novel although you could be forgiven for not realising this, as really it has no overall plot, and the chronology shifts backwards and forwards throughout the tale, but you soon realise its mastery. For some obviously this is a turn off in itself due to way this is written, but if you do decide to read this book, then you will realise how cleverly it is crafted, and why so many of us read it umpteen times and are always recommending it to others.

If the story has a lead character as such, then here this is Yossarian who along with the rest of his squadron are based on the island of Pianosa. Please be aware that those who may want to visit the island will get a surprise, as in this book it appears much larger than in reality it is. With a whole host of unforgettable characters such as Major Major, Chief White Halfoat, Milo, and numerous others, including one name which translated from the German isn’t very flattering, the names themselves can be humorous. All based on this small Italian island between 1942-1944 so the bomber crews keep finding that their mission runs keep being increased, despite the fact that they had been originally promised after a certain number they would be sent back to the US.

For the likes of Yossarian, he has had enough and keeps going in and out of the base hospital, whilst someone like Milo who has really grasped the black market and capitalism, sees the war as something to make him lots of money, even if that means contracting himself out to the enemy for missions. Along with his transporting of goods, so he is welcome anywhere, even if it means the Luftwaffe flying goods onto the island.

Full of incident so this is really a book made up of short showpieces and in some ways can be looked at as a series of sketches with continuation provided to make this into a novel. On original publication this was blasted by many critics, but at least when it came out in paperback it started selling really well, so much so that of course catch 22 is a phrase that most of us have used on occasion, and even those who have never read the book know what it means. With literary allusions and references to the likes of Dostoevsky, Dickens and Kafka for a start, this is not only just a satire, but a great comedy, albeit quite dark in places. Taking in the horrors of war along with the absurdisms in life that we all experience, especially when it comes to bureaucracy and rules and regulations, so this has a resonance with us all and will remain unforgettable and a must read for future generations.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Margosa

Anarchy in uniform

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 October 2017

Verified Purchase

This is surely one of the greatest books of all time; utterly anarchic. How much of it related to reality is a moot point although one can imagine that the American services were somewhat, shall we say, disorganised. A great read and one of the few books that produces uncontrolled laughter.

30 people found this helpful

Helpful

N

funny and amazing book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 December 2017

Verified Purchase

If you are not familiar with the "Catch 22" you aint lived. A long, complex, difficult, funny and amazing book. I read it once a year (since many years ago) to reboot the ridiculous in my mind!

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Klingsor's Castle

Tedious pointless and very unfunny.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 November 2020

Verified Purchase

I don't know what people see in this novel. It was written over many years and boy, does it show! It's rambling and lacks any kind of structure or progression. None of the characters are well-rounded or progress psychologically. I found I just couldn't care less what happened to any of the characters who all appear more as cardboard cut-outs whose only purpose is to hang jokes on. And the jokes are somewhat repetitive. They all appear to be the same kind of joke but spoken by a different character in a slightly different context. And they're not even funny. I persevered with it thinking it might get better as it went along. It doesn't.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

RC

A good book but does take some effort to read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 December 2017

Verified Purchase

A good book but a little repetitive - the author replays the same concept several times in slightly different scenarios/ideas. Its a forthright book and if you don't like strong language and explicit strong sexual themes then I'd avoid. Its also pretty blunt about the realities of war. That said its also very effective at highlighting the ridiculousness petty minded nature of most large organisations and the risk of group think.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	AbeBooks Books, art & collectables	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Download Audiobooks	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	DPReview Digital Photography	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations

Amazon Home Services Experienced pros Happiness Guarantee	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands

Amazon Warehouse Deep Discounts Open-Box Products	Amazon Business Service for business customers	Whole Foods Market We Believe in Real Food

Select Your Cookie Preferences

Follow the author