num_pages: 260
description: The Instant #1 New York Times BestsellerFrom President-Elect Joe Biden Promise Me Dad is his deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country.Biden splices a heartbreaking story with an election story and a foreign affairs story. And in so doing he offers something for everyone no matter which strand draws you in.The New York Times Book ReviewIn November 2014 thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic scrutinized and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite a time to connect a time to reflect on what the year had brought and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Bidens eldest son Beau had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor fifteen months earlier and his survival was uncertain. Promise me Dad Beau had told his father. Give me your word that no matter what happens youre going to be all right. Joe Biden gave him his word.Promise Me Dad chronicles the year that followed which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Bidens extraordinary life and career. As vice president Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year across the world dealing with crises in Ukraine Central America and Iraq. When a call came from New York or Capitol Hill or Kyiv or BaghdadJoe I need your helphe responded. For twelve months while Beau fought for and then lost his life the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016.The year brought real triumph and accomplishment and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long deep bonds with his family on his faith and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office Barack Obama.Writing with poignancy and immediacy Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop.This is a book written not just by the president but by a father grandfather friend and husband. Promise Me Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope purpose and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.
language: English
title: Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose
publisher: Flatiron Books