Former President Barack Obama has announced that he plans to release the first volume of his memoir “A Promised Land” on Nov. 17, two weeks after the upcoming election. Obama shared the news on Twitter in a post that gave readers an idea of what to expect on some of the pages.
“There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one,” he tweeted on Thursday, Sept. 17. “In A Promised Land, I try to provide an honest accounting of my presidency, the forces we grapple with as a nation, and how we can heal our divisions and make democracy work for everybody.”
“A Promised Land,” which is 768 pages long and will be published in 25 languages, can now be pre-ordered, with the hardcover now marked down to $34.99 from its list price of $45. The book will start with Obama’s entry into politics, detail the night of Nov. 4, 2008, when he became the first Black person to win the presidency, and end with the May 2, 2011, killing of former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“[A Promised Land will cover] what I got right and the mistakes I made, and the political, economic, and cultural forces that my team and I had to confront then — and that as a nation we are grappling with still,” Obama explained in a statement, while also saying that he hopes the book will inspire young people to “play their part in remaking the world for the better.”
It was reported in 2017 that Obama and his wife Michelle Obama sold their memoirs to The Crown Publishing Group for $65 million after a bidding war ensued. The former first lady’s book “Becoming” has already sold over 8 million copies in the United States and Canada. The Netflix documentary of the same name was also a huge hit and was nominated for an Emmy award.
“A Promised Land” will be Obama’s third book, with “Dreams from My Father,” another memoir, being released in 1995, “The Audacity of Hope” in 2006, and the children’s book “Of Thee I Sing” in 2010.
