A searing memoir in which Diawara revisits his early years as an emigrant in love with Swedish girls and American rock and roll. Taking us from the nightclubs of his hometown Bamako, to the caf©s of Boulevard Montparnasse, to the black neighbourhoods of 1970s Washington DC, he challenges what it means to live strangled by the traditions of the place that is left behind. The reader leaves this haunting story exhilarated by Diawara's personal triumph and humbled by his gentle grace and humanity.