Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is a monumental, wildly inventive masterpiece of dark satire that exposed the absurdities and bureaucratic nightmares of modern warfare. Set on a Mediterranean air base during World War II, the story follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. bombardier whose primary mission is simply to stay alive amidst a military command that keeps relentlessly increasing the number of required missions. Trapped in a maddening loop of institutional hypocrisy, Yossarian runs headfirst into the ultimate bureaucratic trap—the infamous "Catch-22"—which dictates that any pilot requesting grounding out of sheer sanity is proven sane enough to fly. Dizzily chaotic, brilliant, and biting, this modern classic is an unforgettable exploration of institutional madness, mortality, and individual survival.