Since the publication of his first novel, Morvern Callar, Alan Warner has been known as a discerning music buff.

This book, the 98th in Bloomsbury's series about classic albums, tells of his youthful fascination with a German band called Can, of whom he knew nothing beyond a mention in a John Lydon interview. He doesn't even get around to talking about Tago Mago itself until page 85, because the focus of this story is what it was like to be a teenage music fan from Oban before the days of the Internet, when you had to make do with whatever scraps of information you could glean, and whatever albums your local record shop had in stock. Many readers will be nodding in recognition as the young Warner projects on to the band his visions of all that's most exciting and romantic about rock, adjusting his mental image as he unearths more information and more of their unique and fascinating music.