Book to recollect conversations between Barack Obama, musician Bruce Springsteen

A new book based on conversations between former US president Barack Obama and musician Bruce Springsteen will be globally released on October 26, publisher Penguin Random House announced on Friday.

The book, ''Renegades: Born in the USA'', chronicles the conversations Obama and Springsteen had in 2020 on Spotify’s co-produced podcast of the same name.

Published in partnership with Higher Ground, the book also features rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal collections and never-before-seen archival material, including Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics and Obama’s annotated speeches.

''Over the years, what we’ve found is that we’ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family, and about America. In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys trying to understand this country that’s given us both so much. Trying to chronicle the stories of its people. Looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth and community with the larger story of America,'' writes Obama in the opening pages of the book.

According to the publisher, the book offers a ''compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders — one Black and one white — who have helped shape the American story''.

''Along the way, they reveal their passion for — and the occasional toll of — telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity,'' they said in a statement.

Springsteen writes in the book's introduction that the long-time friends had serious conversations ''about the fate of the country, the fortune of its citizens, and the destructive, ugly, corrupt forces at play that would like to take it all down''.

''This is a time of vigilance when who we are is being seriously tested. Hard conversations about who we are and who we want to become can perhaps serve as a small guiding map for some of our fellow citizens... This is a time for serious consideration of who we want to be and what kind of country we will leave our children,'' the American singer-songwriter said.

Apart from English, the book will be released in Italian, French, Dutch, Portugeuse - Brazil and Portugal, Spanish, and German.

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