Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. It is not merely that this book avoids being ponderous, as might be expected, even forgiven, of a hefty memoir, but that it is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places, the detail granular and vivid...Barack Obama has...illuminated a pivotal moment in American history -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ― The New York Times

Deeply introspective and at times elegiac... [it] isn't the usual post-presidential legacy-burnishing project. There is a literary grandness... and dramatic renderings of moments high and low captured in sometimes Sorkin-esque dialogue...The narrative puts the reader in the room at defining moments -- Eli Stokols ― LA Times

701 pages of elegantly written narrative, contemplation and introspection, in which he frequently burrows down into his own motivations... A Promised Land delivers amply on the basic expectations of political autobiographies, providing a granular view from the driving seat of power. There are also the gratifying details observed in moments of historic import -- Julian Borger ― The Guardian

A supremely intelligent, accomplished man . . . Obama emerges as kind to his staff, devoted to his children and absolutely in love with his wife -- Tim Stanley ― The Telegraph

A classy book and not just one for insiders...[Obama] reminds us what it was like having a sense of magnanimity and modest statesmanship in the White House. Welcome home, decency -- James Hanning ― inews.co.uk

Obama's is a beautifully written memoir...and covers his childhood through to the assassination of Osama bin Laden in 2011, which is written up like a thriller...it's probably the best volume of autobiography from a former president in modern times. As a reminder of a face of America it is invaluable -- Sean O'Grady ― Independent, *****

The author of Dreams from My Father - his lyrical 1995 account of his tangled mixed-race upbringing in Hawaii and Jakarta - has not lost his narrative touch. This memoir is beautifully written and disarmingly candid...leavened with telling asides, poignant vignettes, painterly character sketches and an occasional corker of a joke -- Tony Allen-Mills ― The Sunday Times

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy