Joe Biden

The Life, the Presidency, and What Matters Now

By: Evan Osnos

Narrated by: Evan Osnos, David Remnick

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2020

A concise, brilliant, and trenchant examination of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s successful lifelong quest for the presidency by National Book Award winner Evan Osnos.

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest - fortunate to have sustained a 50-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses and disappointments that he has suffered.

Yet even as Biden’s life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a willingness, rare at the top ranks of politics, to confront his shortcomings, errors, and reversals of fortune. As he says, “Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.” His trials have forged in him a deep empathy for others in hardship - an essential quality as he leads America toward recovery and renewal.

Blending up-close journalism and broader context, Evan Osnos, who won the National Book Award in 2014, draws on nearly a decade of reporting for The New Yorker to capture the characters and meaning of 2020’s extraordinary presidential election. It is based on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members.

This portrayal illuminates Biden’s long and eventful career in the Senate, his eight years as Obama’s vice president, his sojourn in the political wilderness after being passed over for Hillary Clinton in 2016, his decision to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency, and his choice of Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Osnos ponders the difficulties Biden faces as his presidency begins and weighs how a changing country, a deep well of experiences, and a rigorous approach to the issues, have altered his positions. In this nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy - a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history.

The audiobook includes Evan Osnos's conversation with David Remnick on The New Yorker Radio Hour.

©2020 Evan Osnos. Portions of this book originally appeared, in different form, in The New Yorker. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

solid profile of Joe Biden

Got the book to better understand Biden's background. I got what I was not disappointed.

The President We Needed

A very concise look at #46. A look at the man and how his life shaped his future presidency. He truly is the president we need at this point in time. Luckily, 81 million people agree.

Beautiful story and great presentation

Interesting, light but informative and very helpful in understanding who Joe Biden really is.
There are many questions that rise from this biography. Is Joe Biden extremely lucky or unlucky during the course of his life. Is he a shrewd political mind that at any point during his career masterfully positioned himself perfectly during critical junctures or does he always find himself in the right place in the right time. I think in many ways he is all of these things as the book describes elements in his character that attest to all of those elements

Vote for Joe Biden with Dollars of United States.

Congratulations President Mr Joe Biden who will build a better Sino-America relationship and a better world.

Well worth the listen

On a road trip a few weeks before 2020 Election Day, I finished this in one day. It’s a concise and captivating look into a man who I hope will be the next president of the United States.

It portrays Biden as both Democrat and democrat: A man who has represented the center of his political party for decades while also paying close attention to the wants, needs, and emotions of the electorate in both Delaware and the United States.

As always with his work, Osnos writes in a way that is eloquent, substantive, and consistently captivating. Well worth the download.

Joe Biden

The is the most fantastic book I have listened to in a long long time. All round honest and made me feel safe that at least someone is there in the White House with ,not just the brains, but the heart to fight for America and to help us stand up too.

Phenomenal

This book was I credible and would recommend to anyone trying to understand where we are and how Biden would run the White House if elected

feels very genuine

I think I know more now about President Elect Biden than I did throughout his campaigning. I feel like now we have the best person coming in to help our country unite and move forward. thank you for writing this!

fantastic account!

couldn't stop. finished it in 1 day, which is a first for me! honest account, flaws included, of our President!

Timely and well researched

I've followed Osnos since he first started writing. He's developed into a good author with a world outlook. I listened to this book in Delaware 20 miles from Biden's home during the final days of the 2020 election, so it was timely for me. I thought I knew Biden, but there are details I overlooked, and Osnos filled those in. This is a sympathetic treatment of our newest president.