'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'

Michael Chabon

Pulitzer 2001

Young Sam Clay, son of a psychiatric nurse and a vaudeville muscleman, dreams of literary glory as he toils as a clerk for a novelty wholesaler. His cousin, Josef Kavalier, a veteran magician who used his Houdiniesque talents to escape Nazi-held Prague, yearns for enough money to free the family he left behind. Inspired by the greatest dreams and darkest fears, together they create masked superhero comic characters and go on to build a comic empire. This sprawling and enthralling novel is saturated with real events and historical figures from the golden age of the comic-book industry.