Palo Alto

Blurb

Palo Alto is a collection of linked short stories by American actor and writer James Franco. The collection was published in 2010 by Scribner's. The stories are about teenagers and their experiments with vices and their struggles with their families. The book is named after his home town of Palo Alto, California, and is dedicated to many of the writers he worked with at Brooklyn College. Inspired by some of Franco's own teenage memories, and memories written and submitted by high school students at Palo Alto Senior High School, the stories describe life in Palo Alto as experienced by a series of teenagers who spend most of their time indulging in driving drunk, using drugs and taking part in unplanned acts of violence. Each passage is told by a young narrator.
The film adaptation of the book stars its author, James Franco, Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, Zoe Levin, Claudia Levy, Chris Messina, Keegan Allen, Talia Shire, Don Novello and Val Kilmer. The film is written and directed by Gia Coppola.