Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Surrender

40 Songs, One Story

by Bono
ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Bono—artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2—has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he’s lived, the challenges he’s faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him. A VOGUE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“A brilliant, very funny, very revealing autobiography-through-music. Maybe the best book ever written about being a rockstar.” Caitlin Moran, award-winning journalist
 
“When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I’d previously only sketched in songs. 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.” —Bono
 
 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 appear throughout the book.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      August 15, 2022
      The U2 frontman considers his life through the lenses of faith, family, activism, and, occasionally, music. It's not that Bono avoids discussing his world-famous band. He writes wittily about meeting future band mates (and wife) in school in Dublin and how he first encountered guitarist The Edge watching him play music from Yes' album Close to the Edge. "Progressive rock remains one of the few things that divide us," he writes. Bono is candid about the band's missteps, both musical (the 1997 album, Pop) and ethical (force-feeding its 2014 album, Songs of Innocence, to every Apple iTunes customer). At nearly every turn, the author spends less time on band details than he does wrestling with the ethical implications of his successes and failures. Dedicating each of the book's 40 chapters to a U2 song gives him a useful framing device for such ruminations: "Bad" deals with the loss of a friend to heroin, "Iris (Hold Me Close)" with the death of his mother when he was 14, "One" about the band's own struggles. Considering Bono's onstage penchant for sanctimony, his tone is usually more self-deprecating, especially when discussing his efforts to address AIDS in Africa and find the "top-line melodies" that would persuade politicians to release funding. He concedes being imperfect at the job; after a weak negotiation with then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he recalls being berated by George Soros, who tells him he "sold out for a plate of lentils." There's little in the way of band gossip, and the author has a lyricist's knack for leaving matters open to interpretation, which at times feels more evasive and frustrating than revealing. But he also evades the standard-issue rock-star confessional mode, and his story reveals a lifelong effort of stumbling toward integrity, "to overcome myself, to get beyond who I have been, to renew myself. I'm not sure I can make it." Chatty and self-regarding but pleasantly free of outright narcissism. A no-brainer for U2's legions of fans.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 24, 2022
      Bono, lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the rock band U2, reflects on his creative and personal evolution in this powerful and candid debut memoir. Born Paul David Hewson and raised in 1970s Dublin by a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, Bono always viewed music as his “prayers.” With remarkable frankness, he details what makes a great song (“The greatest songwriting is never conclusive, but the search for conclusion”); domestic life with his wife, Ali, and their four children; how the band almost fell apart during the 1990 recording of Achtung Baby (“We ran out of love for being in the band”); why he always wears glasses (migraines that were eventually diagnosed as glaucoma); and his experience of the conflict between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1968 to 1998. Along the way, Bono also shares plenty of memories of famous friends—Prince, he notes, is a “genius” who made him realize the importance of U2 owning their master tapes. Self-aware (Bono admits that sometimes he feels like he’s “a sham of a rock star”) and poignantly reflective (“I’m discovering surrender doesn’t always have to follow defeat”), this is a must-read. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from November 1, 2022

      Bono (born Paul Hewson in 1960), lead vocalist and lyricist of the band U2 and philanthropist, tells his story in a lively, conversational style. He begins with his childhood in suburban Dublin and includes details about the sudden death of his revered mother and the formation of U2 with three local teenagers. The singer charts the band's musical development from its punk-inspired debut Boy (1980), to its million-selling statement about America, Joshua Tree (1987), to the electronica of Zooropa (1993), and their more recent efforts. In the last section, Bono deals with his increasing involvement in such social issues as forgiving debt for the lowest-income countries and his staunch fight against AIDS, poverty, and racism. Throughout, he touches on his faith, family, and encounters with such notable musicians as Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, and Johnny Cash; politicians Mikhail Gorbachev, Angela Merkel, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush; and businessmen Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates. VERDICT Sometimes confessional, many times humorous, and always clever and entertaining, Bono has delivered a fascinating autobiography of a major force in popular music and world affairs for all readers.--Dr. Dave Szatmary

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      November 1, 2022
      He was born Paul Hewson, but the world knows him as Bono, the lead singer and beating heart of the Irish band U2. Speaking of hearts, he begins his fine memoir with a striking revelation: he was born with an "eccentric'" heart (one of the chambers of his heart has two doors, most people have three). At 18, he recalls, he realized that if he could do what he loves, he would never have to work a day in his life, but then it occurred to him that you have to be great at something. Bono discusses how he discovered what that was, chronicles his phenomenally successful career up to now, and shares his thoughts on fame, the purpose of music, family, friends, and his passionate activism. As the subtitle suggests, this is an autobiography-in-songs. "Songs are my prayers," Bono says. He reveals the origins of some of his hits. "With or Without You," for example, was a product of "listening to too much Roy Orbison" as well as channeling Scott Walker and Harry Nilsson. That the singer-songwriter writes well for the page should not come as a surprise, but his drawings might. Fans of Bono and U2 will adore this rich and expansive memoir, while music lovers of all persuasions will find much to enjoy here, too.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Award-winning (22 Grammys!) Bono's first book will generate enormous interest.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Loading