‘Northern Boy’ is the story of a gay ABBA-obsessed British-Pakistani boy growing up in a mill town in the North of England during the Thatcher era. His dreams of becoming a performer are encouraged by a teacher, but his family are opposed.

His first love is an Australian boy, living in the town briefly for family reasons, and Australia is where the character is living when the story opens. His journey home for a wedding is the other strand of the narrative.

I love the way the characters feel like real people - flawed and fascinating.

The book captures what that era was like as mills, mines, steel plants and factories closed one by one, and HIV killed and outed gay men. Also the violent racist mobs, now back with us.

https://www.ihussainwriter.com/

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