David Bell embodies the American dream. He''s twenty-eight, has survived office coups, scandals, and beaten lesser rivals, to become an extremely successful TV exec. The images that flicker across America''s screens, the fantasies that enthrall viewers, they are of his making.

But David''s dream is turning sour, nightmarish. He wants reality, to touch, feel and record what is real. He takes a camera and journeys across America in a mad, roving quest to discover and capture some sense of his own and his country''s past, present and future.

Americana is Don DeLillo''s brilliant first novel.