Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS
In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World).
“Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
Praise for Dreams from My Father
“Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow
“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here
“One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place
“Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman
Dreams from My Father is a memoir by Barack Obama that traces his early life and quest for identity. Born to a Black African father and a White American mother, Obama navigates the complexities of race, class, and heritage. The book begins with the news of his father's death and follows his emotional journey across multiple landscapes—from New York and Kansas to Hawaii and Kenya—seeking a deeper understanding of his family, his father’s legacy, and his own place in the world. Through vivid storytelling, Obama explores themes of belonging, the intersection of race and identity, and the search for self in a divided world. Praised for its lyrical prose and profound insights, Dreams from My Father offers a powerful reflection on the complexities of race, culture, and personal growth. It is lauded as a poignant work of self-discovery, comparable to other seminal works on race and identity, and has become an essential text in understanding Obama’s journey and the broader American experience.