_________________________ A TIMESBOOK OF THE YEAR A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories which show that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. A hectic, funny sexual affair between two best friends. A World War II veteran dealing with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A woman adjusting to life in a new neighbourhood after her divorce. Four friends going to the moon and back in a rocket ship constructed in the backyard. A teenage surfer stumbling into his father's secret life. These are just some of the people and situations that Tom Hanks explores in his first work of fiction, a collection of stories that dissects, with great affection, humour and insight, the human condition and all its foibles. The stories are linked by one thing- in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central. To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In his stories, Mr Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level. Known for his honesty and sensitivity as an actor, Mr Hanks brings both those characteristics to his writing. By turns whimsical, moving and occasionally melancholy, Uncommon Typeis a book that will delight as well as surprise his millions of fans. It also establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction, a voice that perceptively delves beneath the surface of friendships, families, love and normal, everyday behaviour.

トム・ハンクスという稀代の表現者が綴った本作は、名優の余技を遥かに凌駕する輝きを放っています。全編を貫くタイプライターというモチーフは、便利さに埋没した現代が失いかけている「手触りのある誠実さ」の象徴です。不器用だが愛おしい人々の営みを、著者は温かな慈しみと鋭い洞察力で、まるで銀幕のカットを繋ぐように瑞々しく描き出しています。 日常の綻びや心の傷に寄り添う筆致は、驚くほど繊細です。機械的な効率よりも、一文字ずつ想いを打刻するような重みがあり、単なるノスタルジーを超えた普遍的な人間賛歌としての力強さを放っています。読後は見慣れた日常がどこか愛おしく、輝きを帯びて見えるはずです。新しい文学の語り手の誕生を、私たちは心から祝福すべきでしょう。