Bono
(Picture: Getty Images)U2 frontman Bono is publishing a memoir with each chapter named after one of the band’s songs.
The book, called Surrender, will look at his early days in Dublin including the death of his mother when he was 14 to the band’s climb to the top of the charts as well as his campaigns on issues including AIDS.
It will be published around the world on November 1 with publishers Penguin Random House guaranteed a best-seller.
He said: “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.”
The book is subtitled 40 Songs, One Story and its 40 chapters are accompanied by 40 drawings by the singer.
Venetia Butterfield, Managing Director of the Penguin Random House UK division publishing the book, said it was “an extraordinary book by an extraordinary man about an extraordinary life”.
She said: “Brilliantly written – warm, wise, funny, self-deprecating, utterly engaging, brave and fearless, Bono reveals himself as a natural storyteller and a powerful and gifted writer. I know this book will delight readers around the world and has all the hallmarks of a future classic.”
Bono, who was born in Dublin Paul Hewson, founded U2 in 1978 and the band have now sold more than 157 million albums worldwide.
Their hits include With or Without You and Beautiful Day.
