On a June morning in 2022, Bill Gaston drives off the Victoria–Port Angeles ferry in a rented Dodge Charger with his two sons. Born in the USA but “Canadian through and through,” Gaston is on a road trip to Tabor, Iowa, the town founded by his great, great, great-grandparents as the westernmost hub of the Underground Railroad.

The Gastons’ eleven-day trip to Tabor and back takes them up and down and across a swathe of rural red states. Motivated equally by a curiosity to find out what really makes Americans tick and the motto ya gotta stop, the Gastons explore the American west, navigate unmapped dirt roads, eat too many French fries, overnight in clapped-out motels, visit a Buddhist mountain monastery, marvel at spectacular landforms, and enjoy unlikely conversations with real Americans.

Both a sideways glance at contemporary American culture and a mordant yet tender account of the true meaning of ancestry, Spying on America is an unpredictably insightful exploration of family, Canada’s neighbour, and the “American bald ego.”