Joe Biden - by Evan Osnos

Book Synopsis

"Highly readable and insightful." --Financial Times, "The 10 Books to Read Ahead of the Ballot in November"

Now updated with new material for the historically significant 2024 election--a concise, "comprehensive and compelling" (The Washington Post) examination of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s vision of the presidency by journalist and National Book Award winner Evan Osnos

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

Yet even as Biden's life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a rare willingness 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 belief that he is underestimated by pundits and opponents--an essential piece of his rationale for running in 2024, despite deep troubles domestically and abroad.

Blending up-close journalism and broader context, award-winning author Evan Osnos draws on a decade of reporting on Biden for The New Yorker to capture the extraordinary presidential election of 2020--and includes up-to-date new insights as Biden faces reelection in 2024. Based on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including former President Barack Obama, and a range of activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members, this portrayal illuminates Biden's eventful career in the Senate, his eight years as Obama's vice president, his political sojourn after being passed over for Hillary Clinton in 2016, his choice of Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate, and his decision to square off once more against Donald Trump.

Osnos ponders the difficulties Biden faces in his presidency 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 era in history.

Review Quotes

"A beautifully written short volume." --Financial Times, Best Books of 2020

"[From] an immensely talented reporter for The New Yorker, Joe Biden ably takes the measure of the man and the politician, presenting a picture of the Democratic nominee that is in a few ways unexpected." --The Washington Post

"It is impossible to come away from Osnos's biography without a sense of awe at what Biden has overcome to arrive at this point." --The Guardian

"Osnos draws on his years covering Biden for The New Yorker to provide a rich narrative for the former vice president's life." --The National Book Review

"[A] probing but sympathetic biographical sketch, drawing on vivid reportage from his New Yorker profiles [and] shrewd analysis, the result is a portrait of the candidate that's smart and evocative." --Publishers Weekly

"[A] solid foundation for evaluating one of the most important figures in American governance." --Booklist

"Reading Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now, a slim but comprehensive and compelling book by the New Yorker writer Evan Osnos, has only strengthened my positive impression of the Democratic nominee." --Max Boot, The Washington Post

"If you need a rapid and readable Biden briefing, it's for you." --Kirkus Reviews

"Explores the journey that President Biden has taken to get to the White House for a second time, while outlining the prospects of what the Biden presidency will mean for the country." --Rolling Stone

"This biography covers the candidate's career as a senator and vice president as well as his life on the campaign trail." --The New York Times Book Review

"Evan Osnos reveals how Biden's trials and tribulations have forged in him an uncommon empathy." --Detroit Free Press

About the Author

Evan Osnos has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008. His most recent book, Wildland: The Making of America's Fury, was a New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, which won the National Book Award. Previously, he was a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, where he shared two Pulitzer Prizes. He lives with his wife and children near Washington, DC.