The colorful singer of the Irish group U2 looks back on his extraordinary career in a 500-page book.
The frontman of legendary rock band U2, Irishman Bono, released his memoir on Tuesday (Surrender) retracing his exceptional journey from his youth in Dublin to becoming one of the most renowned musicians and philanthropists on the planet.
The book is built around 40 songs by his group U2 and sprinkled with 40 artist drawings. Real name Paul David Hewson, Bono is not only an accomplished songwriter, singer, guitarist and artist: he is also a businessman and philanthropist with a long history of commitment to great humanitarian and political causes, from peace in the world to the fight against poverty and epidemics such as AIDS.
An extraordinary journey
In his 500-page memoir, 62-year-old Bono traces his extraordinary journey, which begins with the tragedy of his mother’s sudden death when he was 14, to his own heart surgery in 2016. He discusses also questions related to the difficulties of writing and the status “rock star pseudo-religious». «U2’s music was never really rock and roll», writes the musician in his book, but «under its contemporary envelope, it is opera, great music and strong emotions released in everyday pop music».
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Bono supports the promotion of his book with a literary tour entitled Stories of Surrender (Stories of defeat) in New York this week and then in Chicago, London, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and Dublin. “Defeat is a loaded word to me. Growing up in Ireland with raised fists (musically speaking), defeat was not an obvious concept. And I still struggle with that (…) in my group, my marriage, my faith and in my militant life», Writes the artist again and figures in global humanitarian causes.
Promoter of peace in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, the author of the mythical titles Sunday Bloody Sunday, Desire et With or without you also praised Ukraine’s fight for “freedom” in the war with Russia last May during a concert in a kyiv metro station.