Greetings from Bury Park: A Memoir [Paperback]

The inspiration for the smash Sundance hit, soon to be a major motion picture, Blinded by the Light : The acclaimed memoir about the power of Bruce Springsteen's music on a young Pakistani boy growing up in Britain in the 1970s. 

Sarfraz Manzoor was two years old when, in 1974, he emigrated from Pakistan to Britain with his mother, brother, and sister. Sarfraz spent his teenage years in a constant battle, trying to reconcile being both British and Muslim, trying to fit in at school and at home. But it was when his best friend introduced him to the music of Bruce Springsteen that his life changed completely. From the age of sixteen on, after the moment he heard the harmonica and opening lines to “The River,” Springsteen became his personal muse, a lens through which he was able to view the rest of his life. Both a tribute to Springsteen and a story of personal discovery, Greetings from Bury Park is a warm, irreverent, and exceptionally perceptive memoir about how music transcends religion and race.

Charming and affectionate. . . . [The novel] rises above the predictable coming-of-age genre on the strength of Manzoor's unflinching honesty and his unique world view. . . . You don't have to be a Springsteen fan to enjoy this book or understand Manzoor's devotion. You just have to recall a time when you were still open enough that music had the power to shatter the world view you inherited.  —The Miami Herald

The age-old immigrant's story of hungry hearts and divided loyalties is delivered with uncommon honesty and understanding.  —Pico Iyer, Time (Europe)

[Blinded by the Light] vibrantly displays a modest and unpretentious sense of optimism, and offerslc,