The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
Surrender

Surrender

Bono Autobiography: 40 Songs, One Story

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Bono - artist, activist and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2 - has written his autobiography: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he's lived, the challenges he's faced and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him.

Narrated by the author, SURRENDER is an intimate, immersive listening experience, telling stories from Bono's early days in Dublin, to joining a band and playing sold out stadiums around the world with U2, plus his more than 20 years of activism.

Throughout a remarkable life, music has always been a constant for Bono and in the audiobook, his distinctive voice is interwoven with a very personal soundtrack adding atmosphere and texture to each and every scene. From moments of classic U2 hits to snippets by The Clash, Patti Smith, Verdi, Johnny Cash and Mozart, SURRENDER also exclusively features clips of newly recorded reimagined versions of U2 songs including 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', 'With Or Without You', 'One', 'Beautiful Day' and more, glimpsed for the first time on 'SURRENDER: 40 Songs, One Story'.

As one of the music world's most iconic artists and the cofounder of organizations ONE and (RED), Bono's career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it's Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was 14, to U2's unlikely journey to become one of the world's most influential rock bands, to his more than 20 years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candour, self-reflection, and humour, Bono opens the aperture on his life - and the family, friends and faith that have sustained, challenged and shaped him.

Surrender's subtitle, "40 Songs, One Story," is a nod to the book's 40 chapters, which are each named after a U2 song.

'Bono's new memoir, Surrender, elevates the audiobook into an art form.' The Times

"It is such an incredible listen." Zoe Ball

'If ever a memoir was designed for audio this is it' Financial Times

© Bono 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Reviews

  • This is Bono at his best: thoughtful, reflective, revealing a wisdom that his rock-star persona covers up ... At the root of it all you don't doubt his decency or integrity
    Will Hodgkinson, The Times

About the author

Bono

The lead singer of U2, Bono was born Paul David Hewson in Dublin. He met The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton at school and in 1978, U2 was formed. The band released their first album, "Boy," on Island Records in 1980 and to date have released a total of 14 studio albums that have sold 157 million copies worldwide. Heralded by Rolling Stone as "a live act simply without peer," the band's record-breaking 360° Tour (2009-2011) remains the highest-grossing concert band tour of all time. U2 have won numerous awards, including 22 Grammys, more than any other duo or group, as well as an Academy Award nomination and the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award. In 2005, U2 was inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Alongside his role in U2, Bono is a ground-breaking activist. A leader in Jubilee 2000's Drop the Debt campaign, he next took on the fight against HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty, co-founding sister organizations ONE and (RED). ONE is a movement of millions of people dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease. With ONE, Bono has lobbied heads of state and legislatures all around the world, helping to ensure the passage of programs, such as the U.S. PEPFAR AIDS program, that have helped to save tens of millions of lives over the past 20 years. (RED) - which partners with companies to raise public awareness about, and corporate contributions for, the AIDS crisis - has to date generated more than $700 million for the Global Fund to treat and prevent AIDS in Africa. Since 2020, ONE and (RED) have also been fighting COVID-19 and its impact on the developing world.

In 2016, Bono cofounded The Rise Fund, a global impact fund investing in entrepreneurial companies driving positive social and environmental change in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Bono has received a number of awards for his music and activism, including the Freedom of the City of Dublin (with U2), Chile's Pablo Neruda Medal of Honour, the Legion D'Honneur from the French Government, an honorary British knighthood, the Fulbright Association Prize for International Understanding and TIME Magazine's Person of the Year (along with Bill and Melinda Gates). He lives in Dublin with his wife Ali Hewson.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more