Sarfraz Manzoor

For most of America, New Jersey was the ‘stinking state’ - the densest, most polluted state in the USA. But for one Luton teenager listening to the music of Bruce Springsteen, it became impossibly glamorous.

Now in his thirties, writer Sarfraz Manzoor makes the pilgrimage to New Jersey, using Springsteen’s lyrics as his guide, to discover the landscape of his youthful imagination. And he finds that, after decades in the doldrums and being the butt of so many American jokes, the Garden State is reinventing itself by capitalising on the mythology Springsteen has created.