Penguin Random House announced that former President Barack Obama's much anticipated new memoir will be published on November 17. At 768 pages, A Promised Land will be the first of two volumes and it will explore Obama's entering politics, his 2008 presidential campaign and his role in the death of Osama bin Laden back in 2011.
According to the New York Times, 3 million copies have been ordered as a first printing for the U.S. edition. The book will drop on the same date all around the world in 25 different languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Finnish, Spanish and Vietnamese.
"There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one," Obama said in an official statement announcing the news. "I’ve spent the last few years reflecting on my presidency, and in A Promised Land I’ve tried to provide an honest accounting of my presidential campaign and my time in office: the key events and people who shaped it, my take on 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."
The timing of the release—after the the next election—wasn't lost on the author or publishing house. The New York Times reports that "there was no thought given to publishing before the election, according to an Obama spokeswoman, because [Obama] wanted to focus on helping his former vice president, Joseph. R. Biden Jr., campaign for the White House without any distractions."
This isn't the former President's first venture into writing: Dreams From My Father, his first book, was published in 1995 and The Audacity of Hope, released in 2006, has until now sold over 4.2 million copies.
This latest endeavor follows the 2018 release of Obama's wife's own memoir. Michelle Obama's Becoming sold over 1.4 million copies in its first week alone. Clearly, the Obamas know a thing or two about writing a book.
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