Blog tour: Northern Boy

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Welcome to the blog tour for Northern Boy by Iqbal Hussain!

More about the book…

Joyful, defiant and dazzling, this is the story of Rafi Aziz – a Northern boy dreaming of his name up in lights.

It's 1981 in the suburbs of Blackburn and, as Rafi’s mother reminds him daily, the family moved here from Pakistan to give him the best opportunities. But Rafi longs to follow his own path. Flamboyant, dramatic and musically gifted, he wants to be a Bollywood star.

Twenty years later, Rafi is flying home from Australia for his best friend’s wedding. He has everything he ever wanted: starring roles in musical theatre, the perfect boyfriend and freedom from expectation. But returning to Blackburn is the ultimate test: can he show his true self to his community?

Navigating family and identity from boyhood to adulthood, as well as the changing eras of ABBA, skinheads and urbanisation, Rafi must follow his heart to achieve his dreams.

More about the author…

Iqbal Hussain is a writer from Blackburn, Lancashire and he lives in London.

His work appears in various anthologies and on websites including The Willowherb Review, The Hopper and caughtbytheriver.

He is a recipient of the inaugural London Writers’ Awards 2018 and he won Gold in the Creative Future Writers’ Awards 2019.

In 2022, he won first prize in Writing Magazine’s Grand Flash competition and was joint runner-up in the Evening Standard Short Story Competition.

In 2023, his story ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’ won first prize in the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature short story competition.

He was also Highly Commended in the Emerging Writer Award from The Bridge Award.

Northern Boy is his first novel.

Northern Boy is an Unbound Firsts book, an Unbound initiative for debut writers of colour.

My impressions…

This is a truly splendid book for anyone who loves to laugh, cry and sometimes do both at the same time. It is for anyone who loves to be dazzled!

Rafi is such a relatable character. He is different and he wants to be different. However, he lives in a time and place that doesn’t like people like that. It takes strength and resilience to survive that. And a huge dose of ABBA!

I honestly don’t know how the author has managed to write such an uplifting story despite the homophobia, racism and other awful human behaviours that lurk between the pages. But it is undeniably a book that will leave you with a warm feeling and a happy smile.

This is a great reminder of how important it is to stay true to yourself.

Three words to describe it. Uplifting. Emotional. Bold.

Do I like the cover? Yes, I love it.

Have I read any other books by the same author? No, this is a fantastic debut novel.

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