The fattest man in America - Christopher Nicholson

In a small Texas town lives Mickey, weighing in at nearly a thousand pounds, who affectionately refers to himself as the King of Fat. Having outgrown the lift - and his job - as bellboy at the Ranelagh Grand Hotel, Mickey decides to make ends meet by becoming a tourist attraction. Initially, it's an amateur affair - people pay a little to look, a little more to touch or take a photograph - but when Mickey takes on a professional manager business begins to boom. Billboards go up along the highway, a cafeteria and giftshop are built alongside the house and recordings of Tibetan lamas chanting in the background add to the atmosphere. Mickey is a star.

Yet as he becomes ever more famous Mickey begins to feel a profound unease. His life has become a celebration of the flesh - but what of the spirit?

Set against the West's angst over the problem of increasing obesity, this is the very human story of one man's struggle to come to terms with his freakish body. In his own, darkly funny words, here is Mickey's journey towards a very American idea of heaven.