A modern reworking of Cervantes' Don Quixote. Ismail Smile, an ageing travelling salesman who has absorbed too much television, sets out across America to win the heart of a TV star he has never met, accompanied by an imaginary son. Alongside this, the novel follows the troubled writer who is inventing him. The story takes in family strain, immigration, the opioid crisis and a country caught up in media noise. It is a comic and moving book about love, delusion and the stories people tell to make life bearable.