Sideways: Travels with Kafka, Hunters's and Kerouac

Seeking to capture the spirit of his literary heroes, Patrick O'Neil quits his desk job, breaks up with his girlfriend and throws himself at the world. His bookish inspiration leads to unlikely results - with a head full of Kafka he ends up at a psychedelic trance party in the Sahara Desert, and Kerouac delivers him into the clutches of lawless military cops in Rio. Hunter S. Thompson reliably sends him into a peyote-fired panic, hiding from murderous Mexican cowboys.

O'Neil's instinct to always choose the riskier, less comfortable path on offer rewards him with often comical misadventure, but also unforgettable raw experience and unlikely friendships.

Sideways is a hair-raising and often hilarious account of the kind of travel that doesn't just broaden the mind, but twists it in new directions - revealing that the way forward isn't always straight ahead.