Former US President Barack Obama’s memoir “A Promised Land” has sold nearly 8,90,000 copies in the US and Canada in its first 24 hours of sale, according to the book’s publisher.
Around 8, 87,000 units were sold in the US and Canada, which includes pre-order sales and first-day sales, cited Penguin Random House. The publisher said this sale represented “the largest first-day sales total for any book ever published” by the company.
“This will be a book of rare consequence. That it will sell as no other book has done since July 21, 2007 — when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, is immensely cheering to booksellers,” said Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt.
Prior to the opening day, Obama had asked his followers on Twitter to read his memoir to get an insight on events and people that shaped him during his early years.
“My memoir, A Promised Land, is out today. I hope you’ll read it. My goal was to give you some insight into the events and people that shaped me during the early years of my presidency. Most of all, I hope it inspires you to see yourself playing a role in shaping a better world,” he had tweeted.
Civil suit filed in UP against Obama
A lawyer in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh has filed a civil suit against Obama’s book and has demanded an FIR be lodged. The lawyer has alleged in his petition that what Obama has said about Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi is humiliating and an attack on the sovereignty of the country.
Gyan Prakash Shukla, national president of All India Rural Bar Association, has filed the civil suit in Lalganj Civil Court. The case has been scheduled for hearing on December 1.
Talking about former Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh, Obama has said in his memoir that Sonia Gandhi picked him to be the PM because he posed no threat to her son Rahul Gandhi, whom she was grooming to be her heir.
Obama has remembered Manmohan Singh as a “man with uncommon wisdom” and he has also mentioned that Singh owed his position to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. About Rahul Gandhi, Obama has written, “Rahul Gandhi has a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject.”
