Bono Announces Surrender Memoir Breaking Down U2 Songs

Bono recently said he’s “embarrassed” by most of U2’s catalog, but apparently that didn’t stop him from writing a memoir structured around his band’s songs. Titled Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, the book is out on November 1st via Knopf.

As the title suggests, Surrender contains 40 chapters — each of which is named after a U2 song — as well as 40 original drawings created by Bono specifically for the memoir. In the book, he’ll also take readers through the journey of his upbringing in Dublin, the loss of his mother, and humanitarian work dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty.

“When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I’d previously only sketched in songs,” Bono said in a press release. “The people, places, and possibilities in my life. 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. A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book.”

He continued, “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.”

The announcement happens to land on Bono’s 62nd birthday. As a preview of the audiobook, he has shared the story behind “Out of Control,” which was written on his 18th birthday and became U2’s first single. Listen to it below.

Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story is available for pre-order here.

During the same podcast in which Bono said he was “embarrassed” by much of U2’s output, the frontman said he only “recently” learned to sing. Earlier this month, he put those newfound skills to use by performing a surprise acoustic concert with fellow U2 member The Edge at a Kyiv bomb shelter.