From the Academy Award-winning actor and best-selling author: a novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film...and the humble comic books that inspired it. Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, while also capturing the changes in America and American culture since World War II. PART ONE of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression and then disappears for twenty-three years. Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero. Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie. Cue the cast: We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant and everyone else on both sides of the camera. Funny, touching and wonderfully thought-provoking, this is a novel not only about the making of a movie, but also about the changes in America and American culture since World War II. Bonus material: interspersed throughout are the three comic books that are featured in the story—all created by Hanks himself—including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel’s "major motion picture masterpiece."

トム・ハンクスという不世出の表現者が描く本作は、単なる映画制作の裏話ではなく、第二次世界大戦後から現代へ至るアメリカの精神史を紐解く壮大な叙事詩です。一人の兵士の記憶がコミックとなり、やがて巨大な映画へと変貌を遂げる過程には、人間の創造性が持つ熱量と、時代を超えて受け継がれる「祈り」のような想いが宿っています。 映像化作品では製作現場の喧騒やスターの煌めきが鮮烈に可視化される一方、原作には各キャラクターの微細な心の震えや、歴史の重層的な奥行きが深く刻まれています。著者が自ら描き下ろしたコミックという虚構の中の真実を媒介に、読者は活字から溢れ出す圧倒的な臨場感と、物語を形作るすべての人々への慈しみを、映像版とは異なる静謐な感動として体験できるはずです。