{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476709645?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1476709645","authors":["Richard Grant"],"book_id":"9781476709642","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/dispatches-from-pluto-1476709645","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781476709642.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","description":"In Dispatches from Pluto , adventure writer Richard Grant takes on “the most American place on Earth”—the enigmatic, beautiful, often derided Mississippi Delta. Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto —winner of the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize—is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining. On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters—blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta’s lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families—and good reasons for hope. Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It’s lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer’s flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It’s also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781476709642","publication_date":"20151013","publisher":"Simon & Schuster","slug":"dispatches-from-pluto","subtitle":"Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta","title":"Dispatches From Pluto"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TRV025070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southern US Travel","score":0.7423,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036120","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southern U.S. History","score":0.7396,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Midwest History","score":0.7102,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TRV025070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southern US Travel","score":0.7423,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036120","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southern U.S. History","score":0.7396,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Midwest History","score":0.7102,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO026000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Personal Memoirs","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV001000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Adventure Travel","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV025070","confidence_band":"high","label":"Southern US Travel","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Southern US Travel","score":0.7423,"slug":"southern-us-travel"},{"label":"Southern U.S. History","score":0.7396,"slug":"southern-u-s-history"},{"label":"Midwest History","score":0.7102,"slug":"midwest-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Southern US Travel","Good for readers interested in book club","Good for readers who enjoy Southern US Travel and Southern U.S. History."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Richard Grant"],"book_id":"9781501177842","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781501177842.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":19.7642,"title":"The Deepest South of All","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781501177842"},{"authors":["Paul Theroux","Steve McCurry"],"book_id":"9780544323520","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780544323520.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":12.3762,"title":"Deep South","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780544323520"},{"authors":["Tony Horwitz"],"book_id":"9781101980309","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781101980309.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":12.3445,"title":"Spying on the South","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781101980309"},{"authors":["Imani Perry","Ecco"],"book_id":"9780062977373","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062977373.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":12.2694,"title":"South to America","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062977373"},{"authors":["Boyce Upholt","Gabriel Vaughan","Highbridge Audio","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9781324110477","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324110477.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":11.5433,"title":"The Great River","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324110477"},{"authors":["Christopher Knowlton"],"book_id":"9781982128388","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982128388.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":11.0225,"title":"Bubble in the Sun","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982128388"},{"authors":["Ben Raines"],"book_id":"9781982136161","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982136161.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":10.6692,"title":"The Last Slave Ship","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982136161"},{"authors":["John Berendt"],"book_id":"9780679751526","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679751526.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":10.3687,"title":"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679751526"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:our kids"],"label":"Kids","score":0.2279,"slug":"kids"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.0914,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:redneck culture"],"label":"Culture","score":0.0808,"slug":"culture"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:death of the american dream"],"label":"Death","score":0.0588,"slug":"death"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Kids, Book Club, Culture.","Reading lane: Southern Us Travel and Southern U.s. 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