Michelle Obama’s 2018 memoir, “Becoming,” was one of the best-selling books of all time, with more than 17 million copies sold worldwide. Now she has a new book coming out this fall, Penguin Random House announced Thursday.
The book, called “The Light We Carry,” to be published on Nov. 15, is about staying positive in challenging times, she said.
“How do we overcome our fears?” Mrs. Obama said in a video announcement for the project. “How can we channel our frustration into something positive? And how do we rekindle that flame that’s inside each of us?”
She continued, “I’ve spoken to a lot of loved ones, many of you, about what we all seem to be facing, and what has resulted from that process is actually my book.”
“The Light We Carry” will include some of Mrs. Obama’s approaches to those challenges, which include taking the high road, and encouragement for readers to work through their fear and find strength in community.
Penguin Random House said the book will be published in 14 languages and that the initial U.S. print run will be 2.75 million copies. Like her memoir, “Becoming,” it will be published by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
“As the world struggles with an unprecedented health pandemic, deep political divisions, social and racial injustice and anxiety about the future,” Markus Dohle, the chief executive of Penguin Random House, said in a statement, “I am confident that her new book will provide all of us with some urgently needed reassurance while rekindling a spirit of optimism about the power we all hold to positively shape our personal and collective futures.”
Mrs. Obama’s memoir brought readers on her journey from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her time as the first Black first lady. A New York Times notable book of the year, has been translated into 50 languages. The audiobook version, which she narrated, won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.
But given the sales they’ve achieved, it appears to have been a good bet for their publisher. In addition to “Becoming,” which BookScan, an industry tracker, described as one of the best selling books of all time, the first installment of Mr. Obama’s presidential memoirs, “A Promised Land,” has sold more than 8 million units worldwide since its publication in 2020.
That means that in just the last four years, the Obamas have sold 25 million books.
