Next exit magic kingdom - Rory Maclean

Fast, taut, sharp, seriously funny and wonderfully observed, a book that reveals with terrific verve the weirder and more wonderful aspects of the Sunshine State

Rory MacLean never planned to visit Florida. Then one day the Daily Mail is delivered to his house by mistake. Twenty-four hours later he finds himself in the land of Mickey Mouse, gull-wing Thunderbirds and drive-by shootings. He discovers the site of the Garden of Eden, drinks at the fountain of eternal youth, communes with the hereafter and narrowly avoids gratuitous sex. He swims alongside alligators and mermaids, meets a real-life saint and shares marshmallow bunnies with Florida's only community of monks. He sees the Last Supper sculpted in pecans, experiences an Alien Encounter and finds a Holocaust Memorial in the midst of one of the most hedonistic cultures on earth.

Along the way he considers the role chance plays in our lives, and how American dreams can seem to come true under Florida's swaying palms. Next Exit Magic Kingdom is a journey to find the soul of the sunshine state - a place at once kooky and dangerous, superficial and sincere, sensationalist, bland and dumb - which will warm even Mickey's plastic heart.