Barack Obama’s forthcoming memoir will arrive Nov. 17, the former U.S. president announced on Thursday (Sept. 17). Titled A Promised Land, the book is expected to offer insight into several pivotal moments of his presidency, including the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the financial crisis of 2009 and the death of Osama bin Laden.
“There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one,” he wrote on Twitter. “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.”
According to its publisher, the memoir invites readers to reflect on Obama’s political journey leading up “to the watershed night of November 4, 2008 when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.”
“Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of ‘hope and change,’ and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making,” a release from Penguin Random House read.
“He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.”
Obama previously penned two best-selling books — Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope — in 1995 and 2006, respectively. He also wrote a children’s book released in 2010 titled, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.
His wife Michelle has also had success as an author. The former First Lady wrote her best-selling memoir Becoming in 2018, which went on to be one of the most popular political memoirs ever, selling over 10 million copies.