Former US President Barack Obama just released his latest book A Promised Land and in a string of videos uploaded on his Instagram page, Obama talks about his writing process and his inspiration for the new book.
Obama revealed in a video that he usually writes at night, when his wife, Michelle, and his daughters are asleep. The 44th US president also revealed that he writes all his work by hand; doing his first editing when he is transcribing it into his computer.
According to Obama, his fourth book, which sold 890,000 copies on the first day, is “an honest reckoning of [his] time as president”. A Promised Land is about “the events and people that shaped those eight years.”
“I hope to give people some insight into the decision-making process. I want to give some idea of what it’s like to be the President of the United States; the highs and lows that are involved in that”.
“I’d like people to get a sense of what Michelle and I and our kids as a family went through in this big transition”, he said.
“Most of all, I want to give young people some inspiration; how I myself as a young man was able to translate a whole bunch of issues that I had; working on things that were larger than myself.”
Obama said the goal of his 768-page memoir is “to remind people that our government and our democracy is not something that is separate and apart from us”. “It is something that belongs to all of us and we each have a role to play; whether in an elected office or as a citizen,” the father of two said.
A Promised Land will be available in 25 languages, according to publisher Penguin Random House. Obama says that A Promised Land is not just specific to American readers; as the entire world is in a struggle between old systems and ideologies and more liberal and progressive values.
According to Obama, more liberties and better living standards are worth fighting for all over the world.
Barack Obama’s A Promised Land is now available for purchase at online bookstores.