Homeward Bound

A revelatory account of the life of beloved American music icon, Paul Simon, by the New York Times–bestselling rock biographer, the author of Bruce.

To have been alive during the last sixty years is to have lived with the music of Paul Simon. The boy from Queens scored his first hit record in 1957, just months after Elvis Presley ignited the rock era. As the songwriting half of Simon & Garfunkel, his work helped define the youth movement of the '60s. On his own in the '70s, Simon made radio-dominating hits. He kicked off the '80s by reuniting with Garfunkel to perform for half a million New Yorkers in Central Park. Five years later, Simon's album Graceland sold millions and spurred an international political controversy. And it doesn't stop there.

The grandchild of Jewish emigrants from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian empire, the singer-songwriter has not only sold more than 100 million records, won fifteen Grammy awards and been installed into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame twice, but has also animated the meaning—and flexibility—of personal and cultural identity in a rapidly shrinking world.

Simon has also lived one of the most vibrant lives of modern times; a story replete with tales of Carrie Fisher, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Shelley Duvall, Nelson Mandela, drugs, depression, marriage, divorce, and more. A life story with the scope and power of an epic novel, Carlin's Homeward Bound is the first major biography of one of the most influential popular artists in American history.

"Staggering in its depth, a beautifully written chronicle of Paul Simon's long and winding road." —The Boston Globe