Dreams From My Father

Written before any of the political career that followed it, this memoir traces a search for a father known mostly through other people's accounts. Barack Obama moves from Hawaii and Indonesia to community work in Chicago and then to Kenya, letting each place complicate what the last one suggested about family and belonging. The observation is close and the tone reflective rather than argumentative, which is why the book reads as literary non-fiction more than political writing. On the page: • A memoir of identity, inheritance and race written well before public office • Settings that move between Hawaii, Indonesia, Chicago and Kenya • Portraits of relatives assembled from memory, letters and conversation • Prose that suits readers of literary non-fiction as much as political biography Recommended for readers of memoir, modern history and social writing, available in English through Boipoka.