Blinded by the light - Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz Manzoor was two years old when his family emigrated from Pakistan to join his father in Bury Park, Luton. His teenage years were a constant battle to reconcile being both British and Muslim. But when his best friend introduced him to Bruce Springsteen, his life changed for ever. In this affectionate and timely memoir, Manzoor retraces his journey from the frustrations of his childhood to his reaction to the tragedies of 9/11 and 7/7.Original, darkly tender and wryly amusing, this is an inspiring tribute to the power of music to transcend race and religion and a moving account of a relationship between father and son

Sarfraz Manzoor is a writer and broadcaster. He writes for the Guardian and has also written for the Observer, Prospect, New Statesman, Uncut, the Daily Mail and Marie Claire. He has written and presented documentaries for BBC 2 and Radio 4, and he is a regular present on BBC Radio 5 Live. Prior to his broadcasting career, Sarfraz Manzoor was a deputy commissioning editor at Channel 4, and before that he spent five years as a journalist for Channel 4 News. He lives in London.

Every detail rings so true ... Manzoor's warm, humane, unsensational voice ... makes you want to extend the hand of friendship to him
Sunday Telegraph

A beautiful and absorbing love letter to his family, his culture and his hero Bruce Springsteen
Rob Brydon

A small wonder - like some melancholy refit of Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia, where boredom replaces bohemia and real life is something only glimpsed in a Bruce Springsteen lyric
Mojo

Like Blake Morrison's And When Did You Last See Your Father? ... it's about trying to make sense of the rubble left behind by a father's death... A richly humane, smile-inducing memoir
Observer

While the book is many things - the impact of multi-culturalism, a coming-of-age story and a Nick Hornby-style documentation of musical obsession - it is Manzoor's relationship with his father that lies at its heart
Independent

Beautiful and moving ... A book to make you believe that we are all more alike than we know
Tony Parsons