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In this riveting, long-awaited first volume of his presidential memoir, Barack Obama tells the story of his unlikely odyssey from a young man searching for his identity to the leader of the free world. He writes in extraordinarily personal terms about the years that shaped him politically and the defining moments of the first term of his historic presidency - a tumultuous period filled with dramatic change.

Obama takes the reader by the hand on a fascinating journey, leading from his earliest political aspirations and crucial victory in the Iowa primaries - which revealed the power of grassroots activism - to the revolutionary night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected the 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African-American to hold the highest office in the land.

In his reflections on the presidency, he shows in an extraordinary and perceptive way the possibilities and limitations of presidential power, as well as offering us a unique insight into the dynamics of American party politics and international diplomacy.

Obama takes the reader as far as the Oval Office and the Situation Room of the White House, as well as to cities such as Moscow, Cairo, and Beijing. We witness his deliberations in assembling his cabinet, how he wrestles with a global financial crisis, assesses Vladimir Putin, curbs seemingly unbridgeable conflicts to achieve his health care law, clashes with his generals over the strategy to follow in Afghanistan, enacts reforms on Wall Street, acts decisively after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and orders Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

The White House is a place where the world's most powerful diplomats can be found

A Promised Land is a singularly intimate and personal book - the story of a man making historic decisions, of the rock-solid faith of the builder put to the test on the world stage. Obama is candid about the difficulties he faced as a black American seeking to become president, personifying the expectations of a generation inspired by the message of hope and change and braving the moral challenges that decision-making at the highest levels entails. Obama is candid about the forces that worked against him at home and elsewhere, honest about the impact that being in the White House had on his wife and children. In addition, he is not shy in sharing his uncertainties and disappointments. Yet he never deviates from his conviction that within the great, constantly evolving American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book attests to Barack Obama's understanding that democracy is not a gift from above, but something founded on empathy and mutual understanding, something we build on together, every day.