The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel

Michael Chabon

Jun 2012 · Sold by Random House

About this ebook

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic, beloved novel of two boy geniuses dreaming up superheroes in New York’s Golden Age of comics, now with special bonus material by the author—soon to be a Showtime limited series
 
“It's absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book World
 
Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Decade by Entertainment Weekly • Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize

A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939.
 
A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.
 
Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age.
 
Winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the New York Society Library Book Award

Ratings and reviews

If you're looking for an intriguing, perplex masterpiece of a book, then this one is for you. Not only is it incredibly knowledgeable and well written, but it depicts the time period of the late '30s - 50's marvelously. Every sentence is excellent and thoughtful, and Micheal Chabon develops these characters so well, they could practically walk off the pages. It's a fantastical, inviting pleasure to read, not to mention putting it down is the hardest thing I've ever done. Disclaimer: There is a good chance you will become obsessed with comic book history and escape art after reading this.

I've read so much Chabon over the years. I own a few of his books. This one in particular I own thrice the Hard, Soft and E copies of this book. I read it so regularly! This is just my Favorite book and the best book to start with of his. The way he writes is so intoxicating; the story so compelling. If you like this book I do suggest reading more of his books. Chabon if you ever read this understand you are appreciated and absolutely one of the greatest writers of our generation.

A sprawling adventure about the realities of life and how we choose to cope with them. Comics and history, romance and action all explode off the page. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

About the author

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Summerland (a novel for children), The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and Gentlemen of the Road, as well as the short story collections A Model World and Werewolves in Their Youth and the essay collections Maps and Legends and Manhood for Amateurs. He is the chairman of the board of the MacDowell Colony. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.