Bono's new memoir "Surrender" will be coming later this year, the U2 frontman confirmed on his birthday, May 10.
The memoir's title, "Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story," refers to the book's 40 chapters, each of which will be named after a U2 song.
"When I started to write this book I was hoping to draw in detail what I'd previously only sketched in songs," Bono said.
"The people, places, and possibilities in my life. Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept.
"A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist. Surrender is the story of one pilgrim’s lack of progress…with a fair amount of fun along the way."
Announcing the memoir, Bono has shared an audio clip teaser:
It’s #Bono’s birthday & the news is out. He’s written a memoir. ‘SURRENDER: 40 Songs, One Story’
— U2 (@U2) May 10, 2022
Coming 1 Nov. He reads from the chapter #OutOfControl about starting to write U2’s 1st single on 10 May 1978, his 18th birthday, 44 yrs ago. https://t.co/b95HrfaFcC #SurrenderMemoir pic.twitter.com/xOcUmmxs3j
Penguin Random House, which is publishing the Irish rocker's memoir, says: "As one of the music world’s most iconic artists and the cofounder of the organizations ONE and (RED), Bono’s career has been written about extensively. But in 'Surrender,' it’s Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with.
"In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candor, self-reflection, and humor, Bono opens the aperture on his life—and the family, friends, and faith that have sustained, challenged, and shaped him.
"'Surrender’s' subtitle, 40 Songs, One Story, is a nod to the book’s forty chapters, which are each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created forty original drawings for 'Surrender,' which will appear throughout the book."
"Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story" is slated to be released this November 1. It will be released in hardcover, ebook, as well as audio format, which Bono will narrate himself.
*This column first appeared in the May 11 edition of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper, sister publication to IrishCentral.
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