Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
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Dreams from My Father
A Story of Race and Inheritance

Author: Barack Obama

Narrator: Barack Obama

Unabridged: 14 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/05/2021

Synopsis

NOW AVAILABLE UNABRIDGED ON AUDIO FOR THE FIRST TIME
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS

In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World).
 
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

About The Author

Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, elected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms. He is the author of three New York Times bestselling books, Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope, and A Promised Land and is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Michelle. They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on February 04, 2008

As Super Tuesday approaches and we try to separate empty promises and strategic moves from real, actual thoughts and goals, I couldn’t have read a better book than Dreams From My Father. Here’s why: even though I didn’t realize it when I picked it up, Obama wrote this book over ten years ago, when he......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on February 10, 2020

I was looking forward to reading this memoir after listening to him work on it during Michelle's memoir, but unfortunately this book did not slap as hard as his wife's book. The last 1/3 of the book and his homecoming to Kenya was great because I got to see a more intimate glance of his fractured im......more

Goodreads review by Michelle on August 04, 2008

With Barack Obama running for president, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at who this candidate was. I had been warned by another friend (not a Obama supporter, I should note) that it was poorly written and its message unclear. This perplexed me a bit since that had been contrary to......more

Goodreads review by Diane on June 14, 2017

Great read! about understanding and finding out his past upbringing,life and history etc (paperback!)......more

Goodreads review by Sam on February 27, 2017

In early 2017, for many people in the U.S. and abroad, Obama nostalgia is real and rampant. I used the moment to look back at Barack Obama before he was president, before he was a US Senator and a state senator for Illinois, and discover the making of the man in his memoir Dreams from My Father. Ove......more

Quotes

• ?;“Fluidly, calmly, insightfully, Obama guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race.”
—Washington Post Book World

“Beautifully crafted…moving and candid…This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Greg Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”
—Scott Turow

“Provocative…Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”
—Charlayne Hunter-Gault

“In Dreams from My Father Barack Obama takes us on a probing journey in a search for the truths about family and race. Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”
—Alex Kotlowitz

“Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”
—Marian Wright Edelman

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