Flavorwire

An unpublished novella by Kurt Vonnegut is now available from RosettaBooks, one of the pioneering “e-publishers,” working exclusively in digital formats. Entitled Basic Training, and originally intended to be sold under the pseudonym “Mark Harvey,” the 22,000-word novella was written back in the late 1940s, when Vonnegut was in his mid-20s. Though it never sold (it was rejected by the Saturday Evening Post), Rosetta Books, who picked the book from a large cache of the author’s unpublished work preserved by his literary executor, describes the novella as demonstrative of Vonnegut’s “trademark grand themes: the lunacy of kings, the improbability of existence, the yearling hero’s struggle with duty and love and the meaning of heroism.” There’s one catch, however — the book is available only through Amazon as a Kindle Single. Sure, that means it’s only $1.99, but it also means those who still dig the smell of book glue might have to wait a little bit before they get a chance to read it. [via ArtsBeat]