Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in return for an honest review!

A good, heart-warming debut which I liked reading and which gave me 'Bollywood, Billy Elliot vibes', but with important themes (family, identity, authenticity, courage) scattered within, too.

The book is set in the early 00s, when Rafi Aziz - a successful, queer, Aussie-based producer of stage musicals - returns to the UK to attend his best friend's wedding. During his long flight, the story is broken up by scenes from his childhood in 1980's Blackburn exploring his history, family, reputation, and his desires/dreams.

Hussain writes from experience, authenticity and honesty, having grown up in a first-generation Pakistani household living in the mill towns of 1980's.

An interesting insight and worth a read!

Being a Northern Boy myself, I'm curious to see how this pans out.

In Australia in the present day, Rafi suddenly gets an invitation to his best girl friend's wedding, back home in Blackburn in the North of England. As he scrambles to make a red-eye from Melbourne, the mists of time part and we are thrust into his Eighties childhood, a decidedly fey child with a precocious vocabulary, coming off like Tallulah Bankhead in rainbow playwear. With the shift in locale and milieu, the language stays the same, an all-too-knowing adult narrative in the first person, peppered with contemporary pop culture references and five dollar words when ten cents would do.

Shifting back and forth between his present and his past, the book never stays in the same genre, with flashes of childhood innocence in the past alongside leaden prose, and a present that includes impromptu sex and both outright racism and microaggressions; and a final act that blindsides him (and me) with a rush of plot. I'm not sure who this novel is for: maybe it's supposed to be for everybody, but it fails in that.

Of course, with the Eighties as the backdrop for the past, the real world of the time can't be far behind: Thatcher, unemployment, naked racism, AIDS, and of course ABBA are threaded through Rafi's origin story, but more like a checklist rather than a thematic or symbolic motif or subtext. Smash Hits? Check. Terry Wogan? Check. Rubik's Cubes? Check.

The uniqueness of the Muslim community in Blackburn in the Eighties is probably better handled; but perhaps the autofiction nature of the book makes each of the family members and the wider circle of family, friends and enemies into stock characters from any pre-gay narrative: a traditional parent, a supportive parent who later isn't, a best girl friend, the macho brother, the bully and his henchmen, the myopic older woman, and so on, and so on. Invention seems to have abandoned the writer after devising a picaresque plot woven around music and self-determination, and perhaps it's trying to do too much in too many pages. I think the book could have been cut by about a third and not suffered.

There seem to be three great books hiding in here, waiting to be unearthed by the discerning reader (or editor): a charming 80s coming-of-age children's or teen novel, à la Billy Elliot (like the cover tagline), humming with the era's greatest pop music; a romcom of a gay best friend returning to his best girl friend's wedding and finding love and acceptance with a Bollywood soundtrack; and a family saga of British Asian lives from the Eighties to the late Tens, light comedy and high drama intertwined with loving portraits of a community in flux.

But this novel tries to be all those things, and on its way just can't quite reach the heights with any of them; as well as falling into the traps of any of these narratives: Kill All Your Gays, coming out of the closet, fish out of water romantic entanglements, unthinking bullying, one inspirational teacher amongst a load of dullards, snatching triumph from adversity, and so on.

For a first pass at a first novel, this isn't bad, but it could have done with a much stronger editorial hand. Saying all that, I'd be interested to see what comes next from Hussain, if it were more focused on a singular concept.

This is a very enjoyable debut.

On one level, you could take it as a Bollywood version of Billy Eliot. On many others, it is a meditation on family, being yourself, and the perils (real or perceived) of returning to your roots after forging your own life.

It's the early 2000s, Rafi Aziz, a successful, queer, Aussie-based producer of stage musicals, is returning to the UK for the wedding of his best friend. A long, long flight is broken up by a succession of scenes from his childhood in 1980's Blackburn as a first generation Pakistani immigrant. Rafi knows he's different. At first his mother indulges his love of singing and dancing. This changes abruptly when Rafi announces (with help from an inspirational music teacher) that he wants to make performing his life.

Iqbal Hussain writes with affection for growing up in a first-generation Pakistani household living in the mill towns of 1980's South Yorkshire. Affection but also a clear-eyed view of the difficulties of growing up queer at that time and as part of that community. Through this book, I thoroughly enjoyed being invited into the heart of a community I'm not part of.

A lovely touching book about growing up feeling like you are different to the rest of your peer group.

This book is touching and hopeful. It's like Billy Elliot has been transplanted into Bollywood!

Thanks Unbound and NetGalley for this ARC. I loved this book. As a person who comes from a similar culture as Iqbal Hussain, I so identify with a lot of the references even if we don't share all the same reference points. At the end of the day he is a boy of a patriarchal society and culture who has the weight of familial expectations, and cultural and religious taboos upon him.

And all he wants is Bollywood. He dreams in technicolour and would much rather wear the colours of the rainbow.

I loved this family saga told over a generation from the 70's to now... seeing the family saga, the coming of age and coming out with the backdrop of Bollywood is so beautifully written. I couldn't put it down till the last page was read. And the book stayed with me for a long time.

What a brilliant debut by Iqbal Hussain!
I love finding a voice where I can relate to the characters and the situations, and the story is compelling, too. This had all that in spades.
Northern Boy uses a dual timeline to tell the story of Rafi Aziz. It follows his childhood in Blackburn from the 1970s to the early 2000s as he returns home, ending with an ending in the present era.
Rafi Aziz is not your usual young Pakistani Muslim boy living in North England. He'd rather be dressing up with his best mate, Shazia, and dancing around her room, singing pop songs and Bollywood hits, than playing football with the rest of the lads.
Music has been a part of his growing up since he can remember, with a mother who sings with a beautiful voice around the house and dotes on her youngest son, encouraging her to join in with her all the time.
Things come to a head when the family realises that his talent is a passion, and he wants to pursue his love of music, singing, and dancing rather than become a doctor or an accountant.
Then, negativity starts, and "What would the neighbours/community say?" becomes more important than allowing Rafi to realise his dreams.
When we jolt forward, Rafi is older and more established as a well-known stage actor/performer, living a life he's sure his family would disapprove of in Australia. He heads back to his hometown for Shazia's wedding, where he has to deal with the fireworks and many concealed parts of his life are uncovered.
There were so many things I loved about this book. Rafi is a boy I could have met growing up. I knew of many who suppressed their interests because it wasn't the done thing.
I also really related to Maam, his mother, who was battling her cultural demons, missing her homeland, and wanting what was best for her children.
This is Billy Elliot, the British Pakistani Edit! An incredible immersion into the life of a boy who just wanted to follow his dreams.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Unbound for an ARC.

Although Rafi Aziz's family had very different plans for him when they emigrated from Pakistan to the UK, Rafi's interests lay elsewhere.

This is the British Pakistani version of Billy Elliott, but with a hometown boy whose success makes it harder, not easier for him to return home nearly two decades later.

Touching and wholesome, with a protagonist you will find yourself rooting for! It gets 3.5 stars.