Want to learn the ideas in Mother Night better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of Mother Night

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Mother Night, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Kurt Vonnegut.

1-Page Summary of Mother Night

Overall Summary

Mother Night, a novel by Kurt Vonnegut published in 1961 and set in that year, is presented as the memoir of Howard W. Campbell Jr., who also appears briefly in one of Vonnegut’s other novels, Slaughterhouse-5. The narrator is Howard telling his own story about life before, during and after World War II. He says it’s hard to know where to begin his tale because he doesn’t remember much from when he was young; however, he knows that the war changed him forever. It gave him an opportunity to write down his experiences so others could learn from them.

Howard begins by describing the prison he’s held in. He says it was built recently and that there are several guards who watch over him. Howard then goes on to talk about his personal life, starting with when he was born in Schenectady, New York on February 16, 1912. His father worked for General Electric at first and only within the US, but eventually moved the family to Germany when Howard was 11 years old. However once Hitler starts rising to power in Germany (in the late 1930s), Howard’s parents decide to leave while he decides not because of a love for politics or nationhood but because of his relationship with Helga—he describes their relationship as being like one “nation,” which is separate from any other country or political organization. Helga eventually disappears while performing for German troops in Crimea during World War II (during her time away from home). While searching for her (and whether she is dead or alive), Howard spends a lot of money trying to find out where she went; however, despite putting forth all this effort into finding her, he never does locate her again after WWII ends and they’re both released from their respective prisons/detention centers/etc…

Howard rises through the ranks of the British propaganda machine, producing anti-Semitic messages for broadcast. He continues doing this until he is picked up by Americans and reveals that his only reason he wasn’t convicted of high treason was because Wirtanen intervened on his behalf and because Howard worked as an American agent throughout the war. Howard maintains that he doesn’t know what information he passed to the Americans via coded messages in his broadcasts, but it was all passed to him by people he never met or interacted with in any other ways. Even though Howard isn’t convicted (Wirtanen actually sabotages the case against him), he is smuggled to New York where he must live in relative secrecy.

Howard’s life is very lonely. He uses his real name because so few people recognize it as the famous Nazi propagandist, and he has only one friend who happens to be a spy for the Russians. Howard recounts all of this from a future perspective where he can now realize that Kraft had lied to him. In order to further Russia’s cause, Kraft deliberately leaked news of Howard’s continued existence to an American white supremacist newspaper publisher who outed Howard by celebrating his anti-Semitic past. The publisher was eager to involve Howard in his organization and presented him with a woman claiming she was Helga but actually her sister Resi, whom previously confessed having feelings for Howard. Together they planned on escaping Jones’ unwanted notoriety until Wirtanen again intervened on behalf of Howard. Although Resi continued swearing her love for him, she had been working with Kraft in order lure Howard into Moscow during an FBI raid where he was taken into custody again by Wirtanen while Resi committed suicide

Howard feels disconnected from his life again and decides to turn himself in to the Israeli government, which had been pressuring nations believed to be harboring war criminals. Howard’s lawyer sends him a letter promising evidence that will secure his release, but Howard does not want it. He tells the reader he is going to hang himself. Vonnegut makes this clear at the beginning of Mother Night: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”