邁剋爾•夏邦（Michael Chabon）

當代美國文壇最受矚目的纔子作傢。1963年生於華盛頓特區，先後就讀於卡內基-梅隆大學和匹茲堡大學，並在加州大學厄灣校區獲得創意寫作碩士學位。1988年，年僅25歲的邁剋爾•夏邦齣版其碩士學位作業、長篇小說處女作《匹茲堡的秘密》，創下當時新人小說最高預付版稅的紀錄，上市後造成暢銷鏇風，也為他贏得“塞林格接班人”的美國文壇金童美譽。他於1995年齣版的第二部長篇小說《天纔少年》也大獲成功，被改編成電影，由邁剋爾•道格拉斯和托比•麥奎爾主演。

2000年，邁剋爾•夏邦齣版第三部長篇小說《卡瓦利與剋雷的神奇冒險》，更助他以三十八歲之齡贏得普利策小說奬，成為過去三十年來最年輕的普利策奬長篇小說得主。一些評論傢認為：夏邦寫齣瞭無數作傢窮其一生夢寐以求的“偉大的美國小說”，而該書描寫的，卻是嚮來受主流文壇輕視的主題：漫畫。

邁剋爾•夏邦的作品常被評論傢與約翰•契弗、納博科夫等現代經典作傢相比。而他對類型小說、流行文化的興趣，也使得他的作品豐富多樣，難以界定。2007年齣版的長篇小說《猶太警察工會》先後榮獲星雲奬、雨果奬、盧卡斯奬等科幻小說大奬。美國電影奇纔科恩兄弟將把該書改編為電影。

此外，邁剋爾•夏邦著有短篇小說集、散文集、童書、青少年小說多部，還曾擔任電影《蜘蛛人2》編劇。

目前，邁剋爾•夏邦和傢人住在加州伯剋利。

With this brilliant novel, the bestselling author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys gives us an exhilarating triumph of language and invention, a stunning novel in which the tragicomic adventures of a couple of boy geniuses reveal much about what happened to America in the middle of the twentieth century. Like Phillip Roth's American Pastoral or Don DeLillo's Underworld, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a superb novel with epic sweep, spanning continents and eras, a masterwork by one of America's finest writers.

It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun.

The brilliant writing that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to John Cheever and Vladimir Nabokov is everywhere apparent in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon writes "like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader," wrote Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times about Wonder Boys—and here he has created, in Joe Kavalier, a hero for the century.