President Obama’s #1 New York Times bestselling audiobook A PROMISED LAND, read by the author and published by Penguin Random House Audio, has earned a 2022 Best Spoken Word Album GRAMMY® Award nomination.
In A PROMISED LAND, the highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly intimate detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
Summoning all of his gifts as a writer and orator, he takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism, 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. Artfully blending the personal with the political, he pulls back the curtain on his experience in the Oval Office, seamlessly interweaving the arc of his life and the arc of democracy and reminding us that “for all our differences, we remain bound as one people, and that, together, men and women of goodwill can find a way to a better future.”
President Obama has two previous GRAMMY® Award wins in the Best Spoken Word Album category for his narrations of Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. A PROMISED LAND was produced on audio by Dan Zitt and Scott Cresswell and is also available in print from Crown.
A major literary achievement that brings history vividly to life in his own voice, A PROMISED LAND is a jewel in the canon of presidential memoirs—a recording for posterity that will endure for decades.
#1 New York Times Audio Best Seller
Slate Best Audiobooks of 2020
Booklist Editor’s Choice Audio
Google Play Best Audiobooks of 2020
Libro.fm Top 10 Audiobooks of 2020
Audible Editor’s Select Pick
Apple Must Listen
Praise for A Promised Land on audio:
“Obama, a master orator, is skilled at keeping the listener’s attention. It’s the content, of course: the fly-on-the-wall scenes of campaign conversations and congressional dealmaking. But it is the delivery, too. A nimble code switcher, Obama is comfortable being the poet, as he describes the majesty of the Hindu Kush from the window of a helicopter; the professor, as he delves into Keynesian economics; and the openhearted family man, as he recounts the death of his grandmother.” — New York Times Book Review
“President Obama’s distinctively deliberate delivery, singular cadence, and love of words are all fully on display in this, the first volume of his monumental memoir… The sound of his voice—sometimes professorial, sometimes storytelling, occasionally intimate—is well known around the planet.” — AudioFile Magazine
“[Obama’s] reading is clear and fast-paced. It shines when he speaks tenderly of Michelle and his daughters and his complicated feelings about his own presidency while also remaining engaging even when he veers into policy sausage-making… His familiar voice and cadence are an added bonus, and he reads with emotion—and even gives us a few impressions of people he met along the way.” — Booklist
“In terms of a listening experience, though? Ideal. Would vote to press play on again. Forty-four stars.” — Paste
STEP INTO THE AUDIOBOOK STUDIO:
The nominations were announced today by the Recording Academy®. The 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards® will be broadcast live from Las Vegas on Sunday, April 3rd.
Penguin Random House Audio titles have previously earned 17 GRAMMYs®, including the 2021 Best Spoken Word Album winner, Rachel Maddow’s Blowout, and 47 additional GRAMMY® nominations.
