NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Audible Inc., the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, today announced the release of Vice President Joe Biden’s heartfelt memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. In the audiobook, the Vice President himself delivers an intimate and powerful account of 2015, by any measure a watershed year in his extraordinary life and career. The Audible version also includes an exclusive conversation with award-winning journalist Mike Barnicle that contextualizes the memoir’s wide-ranging themes, including the presidential election, current events, and overcoming profound grief. The audiobook is now available for download at www.audible.com/biden.
Promise Me, Dad chronicles the twelve months when the Vice President balanced his responsibilities in the White House while focusing on his family during his son Beau’s battle with brain cancer. Never far away was the insistent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016. Listeners will feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when Biden felt unable to move forward, as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop. The memoir is peppered with anecdotes about the Vice President’s time in the White House, his relationship with President Obama, and his hopes for the future, in a listening experience made visceral and intimate by Biden’s own voice.
"I recorded this audiobook for two reasons,” said Vice President Biden. “First, I want people to know what a remarkable man my son Beau was. And second, because it is possible to find hope in purpose. And I hope that I can provide some solace and give people a reason to believe that they can get through similar tragedies in their lives.”
“In this spoken-word tour de force, Vice President Biden gives us an unforgettable performance about perseverance in the face of insurmountable grief and loss,” said Audible Chief Content Officer Andy Gaies. “People have been captivated by Biden’s oratory skills for decades, and the Audible version of his memoir delivers in spades.”
With a 30-day membership trial at Audible, new listeners can enjoy any one audiobook, including this performance of Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship and Purpose, free.
Among the acclaimed performers who have narrated works of literature for Audible are Nick Offerman, Zachary Quinto, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lily Collins, Emma Thompson, James Franco, and Jesse Eisenberg. In 2013, Audible Studios won its first Grammy Award, for its production of Janis Ian’s memoir, Society’s Child, and also won the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, for Colin Firth’s performance of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.
Audible invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. In 2016, Audible members downloaded an average of 17 books over the course of the year. More than half of new Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio content, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 375,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.