Dreams from My FatherA Story of Race and Inheritance

The Illinois Senator comes to terms with his father's legacy.
Barack Obama’s first memoir, released well before he was a glimmer in the Democratic Party’s eye, is a fascinating, painfully honest examination of family, race and identity — and, on audiobook, the aural equivalent of a page-turner. Obama's father was born in a Kenyan village and journeyed to Hawaii for university, where he met Obama’s mother, a Midwestern-bred idealist. The union was short-lived, though, and Obama’s father remained a shadowy figure until he died in the '80s. In the meantime, Obama grew up with his mother and her second husband in Indonesia and spent a troubled adolescence in Hawaii with his white grandparents before finding inspiration through a career as a community organizer, and finally, peace with his father’s legacy.

Obama, as evidenced by his galvanizing speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention (included here as an audio appendix), is an enchanting orator with a compelling voice that glides smoothly over his lyrical prose and assumes other characters’ dialogue with ease. Despite the narrative’s dramatic, almost archetypal themes, Obama manages to tell his story with relaxed candor. It’s difficult to imagine that this book, with all its psychological insight, global consciousness and authentic populism could have been written by any other presidential candidate in recent history.