Dreams from My Father (Adapted for Young Adults)

A Story of Race and Inheritance

Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father (Adapted for Young Adults) by Barack Obama (Hardback ISBN 9781838857202) book cover

Available as Hardback, eBook

President Barack Obama’s #1 New York Times bestselling memoir of his childhood and young adult years, a compelling journey through family, race and identity, is now adapted for young people. Includes a new introduction from the author, a new full-colour plate section and a family tree

A revealing portrait of a young Black man asking questions about self-discovery and belonging – long before he became one of the most important voices in America.

The son of a white American mother and a Black Kenyan father, Obama was born in Hawaii, where he lived until he was six years old, when he moved with his mother and stepfather to Indonesia. At twelve, he returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. Obama brings readers along while facing the challenges of high school and college, living in New York, becoming a community organiser in Chicago, and travelling to Kenya. Through these experiences, he forms an enduring commitment to leadership and justice. Via the lens of his relationships with his family – the mother and grandparents who raised him, the father he knows more as a myth than as a man, and the extended family in Kenya he meets for the first time – Obama examines the complicated truth of his father’s life and legacy and comes to embrace his own divided heritage.

On his journey to adulthood from a humble background, he forges his own path by trial and error while staying connected to his roots. Barack Obama is determined to lead a life of purpose, service and authenticity. This powerful memoir will inspire readers to reflect on both where they come from and where they are capable of going.


“An American classic, written with grace and precision”
observer

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“Extraordinary … It’s unique. It’s his. There are no other ones like that”
Toni Morrison

“Thoughtful, moving and brilliantly written”
the Times

“Obama has written a memoir … that evokes the anguish of miscegenation yet culminates in a cry of faith in human community … Obama is a born narrator, with a mastery of colour, scene and personality, deftly stirring them into the melting pot of a shared American identity. Rarely has that identity found so vivid a portraitist”
sunday Times

“A touchstone for future politicians”
daily Telegraph


Barack Obama

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 #1 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.