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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

4.2(28)
Hardcover€29.00Paperback€21.50
Language
English
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About the book

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

“It's absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book World

One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Decade • Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century

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

Editions (5)

ISBN9780812983586
PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
Publication Date06/12/12
Pages704

Reviews & Ratings

28 ratings

5 reviews

4.2

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  • annabjolie
    annabjolie

    13 Followers

    5.0

    Einfach ein Meisterwerk mit hervorragendem Schreibstil

    Jun 9, 2025

  • zzwiebel
    zzwiebel

    1 Followers

    4.0

    I would really like to say 4,5 stars. The book is an absolute pleasure to read - the descriptions of the cities and the comic book pages and bygone times are amazing and you grow to really care about the characters. The story is interesting enough, but not quite full 5 stars.

    Nov 26, 2024

  • saiya
    saiya

    15 Followers

    5.0

    Ich finde die Geschichte extrem unterhaltsam und sprachlich so wunderbar dicht. Kein Wort dieser über 800 Seiten ist zu viel. Ich mag es, wie wenig dramatisch Chabon in den teilweise extremen Erlebnissen erzählt. Das klingt vielleicht blöd, aber ich finde das so bodenständig und ehrlich. Das ist einfach gut. Ich bin froh, Joe Kavaliers und Sammy Clays Geschichte gelesen zu haben (letzter hat es mir als Figur besonders angetan) und ich habe die Figuren mit dem Zuklappen des Buches, wehmütig gehen lassen. Nach "Moonglow" und "Telegraph Avenue", das ich ebenfalls großartig fand, ist dieses hier mein dritter Roman von Michael Chabon und hat mir bis jetzt am besten gefallen. Es ist schlicht und einfach ein grandioses Buch.

    Aug 25, 2022

3 of 5 reviews

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