No Direction Home took 20 years to complete and has received widespread critical acclaim. Robert Shelton met Bob Dylan when the young singer arrived in New York; he became Dylan's friend, champion, and critic, and his book has been hailed as the definitive unauthorised biography of this moody, passionate genius and his world. Of more than a thousand books published about Bob Dylan, it is the only one that has been written with Dylan's active cooperation.

Shelton witnessed Dylan's crowning moment at Newport in 1963. He was in the audience for the celebrated Philharmonic Hall concert on Halloween 1964. He was in the Newport crowd when Dylan alienated the folk fraternity with his electric guitar. Dylan gave Sheldon access to his parents, Abe and Beatty Zimmerman – whom no other journalist has ever interviewed in depth; his brother, David; childhood friends from Hibbing; fellow students and friends from Minneapolis; and Suze Rotolo, the muse immortalised on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Adorned with rare and revealing images from throughout Dylan's whirlwind first decade of music, this a unique and honest insight into a man, who, as his sixth decade of music approaches, is ever harder to separate from the myths he has woven.

"I can't be hurt, man, if the book is honest. No kidding, I can't be hurt. I want you to write an honest book, Bob, I don't want you to write a bullshit book. Hey, I'm trusting you. The only reason that I am here with you now is that I know that you are the man... I'll do it with you." Bob Dylan to Robert Shelton