Barack Obama's new memoir is breaking sales records

Copies of Barack Obama's new book.
(Image credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Former President Barack Obama's new memoir, A Promised Land, has already shattered one record, and appears to be on track to breaking a few more.

In the first 24 hours of its release, A Promised Land sold almost 890,000 copies in the United States and Canada. This includes e-books, audio books, and pre-orders, and is a first day sales record for publisher Penguin Random House. Former first lady Michelle Obama's 2018 memoir, Becoming, sold 725,000 copies in North America on its first day, and remains a bestseller for Crown, the imprint that publishes the Obamas.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.