Greg Sumner's new book, "Unstuck in Time," is a celebration of the life and work of American literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. Sumner is chair of the history department at Detroit Mercy and will be at Nicola's Books on Tuesday, Nov. 29 to discuss how Vonnegut's life inspired some of his most beloved novels.

"Unstuck" is a portrait of the quintessential American writer as seen through the lens of his most important work. In the book, Sumner guides us through Vonnegut's best known works, from "Player Piano" (1952) to "Timequake" (1997), and includes an epilogue on Vonnegut's last book, "A Man Without a Country" (2005), to illustrate the writer's profound engagement with the American Dream in its various forms.  

Vonnegut's books, written under dramatically changing personal circumstances and against the backdrop of seismic shifts in our country’s history, read together as a kind of diary, the entries of which Sumner here lays out with great passion and insight.

Sumner has been a professor of history at University of Detroit Mercy since 1993. He holds a doctorate in American history from Indiana University and is the author of "Dwight MacDonald and the Politics Circle."