David Remnick won a Pulitzer in 1994 for Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. Then, in 1998, he began his successful run as editor-in-chief of the New Yorker magazine. Now, he gives you a long biography (672 pages) of Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States. Obama’s personal story is well known, thanks in part to Obama’s own autobiographical account. But, Remnick’s work (which debuted as the #3 bestseller on The New York Times non-fiction list) nonetheless has something new to say. It is exhaustively researched and densely detailed, and adds color in areas missing from other accounts. It also places Obama a bit more squarely within the context of America’s black freedom struggle.
To get a glimpse inside this new work, you’ll want to listen to this interview with David Remnick. It was conducted by Michael Krasny in San Francisco last week. Download the mp3 or grab the iTunes version here. Or simply stream it below. The book, by the way, is available in audio format via Audible.com, and if you try out their 14 day free trial, you can even download the audiobook for free. More info on that here.
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