In "The Brain-dead Megaphone", Saunders trains his eye on the real world rather than the fictional for the first time, and shows that it too is brimming with wonderful, marvellous strangeness, whether it be in the surreal opulence of Dubai, the mind-bending self-denial of the Buddha Boy of Nepal, or even the seemingly mundane transactions of everyday American life. In the face of a political and cultural reality saturated with lazy media, false promises and political doublespeak, Saunders invokes the wisdom of the American literary heroes - Twain, Vonnegut, Barthelme - giving their work fresh relevance. In "The Brain-dead Megaphone", George Saunders reveals himself to be an entertaining and compassionate guide, a warm and wise reader, and a brilliant reporter with an eye for the surprising and revealing. Ultimately, this first collection of non-fiction will inspire us to re-examine our assumptions about the world we live in, and struggle to discover what is really there.