Lou Reed: The King of New York

"Alternative rock pioneer Lou Reed was a notoriously slippery subject – terse and belligerent with interviewers, he jealously guarded his privacy. That’s what makes journalist Will Hermes’ biography of the Velvet Underground co-founder so remarkable: Hermes paints a vivid picture of the musician from his difficult childhood to his last days and explores Reed’s complicated relationships with drugs, music, sexuality and gender. It’s a compulsively readable and astonishingly well-researched book that’s not just for Reed’s fans, but for anyone interested in American cultural history. This is a biography with a real rock and roll heart."