First published 2017
Joe Biden serves as vice president while his eldest son Beau battles brain cancer. The Biden family gathers for Thanksgiving on Nantucket in November 2014, but this year carries different weight. Beau has lived with his diagnosis for fifteen months, and his future remains uncertain. He asks his father for a promise: no matter what happens, Joe will be all right. Biden gives his word. Over the next twelve months, Biden travels over 100,000 miles handling crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. Calls come from New York, Capitol Hill, Kiev, and Baghdad demanding his attention. He responds to each while watching Beau fight and ultimately lose his battle. Throughout this period, the question of a 2016 presidential run looms. Biden draws strength from his family bonds, his faith, and his friendship with Barack Obama. The memoir captures both triumph and devastating loss, showing how a father and public servant navigates the competing demands of country and family during the most challenging year of his life.
Genres: history, family, politics, memoir, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-bonds, grief, public-service
Setting: Iraq, Kiev, Nantucket, New York, Ukraine
Period: 2014, 2015, 21st-century
260 pages · Hardcover · Flatiron Books
Content warnings: terminal-illness