In the fall of 1960, Douglas Bragg decided to take a trip through the South with no particular destination in mind. And so the journey begins for the young hero of legendary writer Madison Jones's newest novel, The Adventures of Douglas Bragg. Leaving his native Birmingham to see a world more interesting than his own, "college man" Bragg sets out on his hitchhiking trip. Before long, he is picked up by a salesman who seems normal enough-that is, until Bragg meets the salesman's mother. This sets off a series of events that alternates between the utterly ridiculous and the potentially disastrous. On his journey, Bragg encounters a rogue's gallery of bizarre and often unsavory characters. There's Bo, the odious pig farmer; J.T., his delusional country-star-wannabe-son; Buster Bell, a washed-up Nashville musician better known for his outrageous house parties than for his music; and there's Mr. L. J. Hibbs, full-time funeral director-and part-time drug-dealer. Bragg himself comes off as no angel; he is a rogue in the truest sense of the word. A habitual liar and shameless trickster, he often uses his talent for duplicity to extricate himself from the most desperate situations. And yet, he is not a true reprobate, finally showing that underneath he does in fact have a conscience. Jones's novel is a true example of southern picaresque that combines gentle satire and wicked humor. The episodes in this light-hearted tale of a conniving, but nevertheless lovable, traveler never quite turn out the way you would expect.

Madison Jones is the author of A Cry of Absence, An Exile and Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light. An Exile was made into the 1970 movie I Walk the Line. He has received the T. S. Eliot Award For Creative Writing, the Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction, and the Harper Lee Award. He has also been awarded writing fellowships from the Guggenhiem and Rockefeller Foundations, and Sewanee Review. Jones is emeritus professor and writer-in-residence at Auburn University.