全球高票房電影【蜘蛛人】的男配角詹姆斯‧法蘭科（James Franco）躋身爬格子的作家之列。

他的首部文學小說《Palo Alto》是部短篇小說集，故事發生在他自己成長的家鄉加州，生動描寫住在加州的一群愛惹麻煩的壞孩子們迷失於自我生活的故事。

小說在美國才出版不到兩周，已登上亞馬遜網路書店文學小說暢銷書榜。

在美國書展上乍聞他正在撰寫小說，並不感到意外，因他曾身兼【自由大道】的編劇，想必對於寫作抱有濃厚興致。他磨練出一身寫劇本的好功力，完全發揮在他的首作小說，書中每篇故事寫得生動又真實，宛若一部電影的分鏡情節。

這位文壇新將詹姆斯‧法蘭科平日除了拍片之外，也正積極地撰寫他的第二部小說。

A fiercely vivid collection of stories about troubled California teenagers and misfits—violent and harrowing, from the astonishingly talented actor and artist James Franco.

Palo Alto is the debut of a surprising and powerful new literary voice. Written with an immediate sense of place—claustrophobic and ominous—James Franco's collection traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. In "Lockheed" a young woman's summer—spent working a dull internship—is suddenly upended by a spectacular incident of violence at a house party. In "American History" a high school freshman attempts to impress a girl during a classroom skit with a realistic portrayal of a slave owner—only to have his feigned bigotry avenged. In "I Could Kill Someone," a lonely teenager buys a gun with the aim of killing his high school tormentor, but begins to wonder about his bully's own inner life.

These linked stories, stark, vivid, and disturbing, are a compelling portrait of lives on the rough fringes of youth.