Bono Announces New Memoir (Video)

Just add the title of “author” to Bono’s many lists of accomplishments.

The U2 front man is set to publish his memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, set to arrive on November 1.

“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,” Bono said in a statement of the book, which shares the same title as the U2 song of the same name from their album, “War” as well as the song, “40.”

“‘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,” he continues. “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.”

 40 original drawings for Surrender, some of which are featured in an new animated video, were created for the book.

‘SURRENDER: 40 Songs, One Story’ refers to the book’s 40 chapters, which are each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created 40 original drawings for ‘SURRENDER’ which will appear throughout the book, and also feature in this animated video. In the video, Bono reads an extract from the chapter titled “Out of Control.” The extract is from the part of the book where Bono describes writing U2’s first single on May 10, 1978 — his 18th birthday — 44 years ago today.

Watch below: