Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming’’ sells 10 million copies
Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja
The parent company of publisher Penguin Random House has announced that Former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama’s best-selling memoir, “Becoming,” has sold nearly 10 million copies.
The candid memoir, released in November, quickly became a best-seller and is one of the most popular books of the decade.
According to the chief executive of Bertelsmann, a parent company of Penguin Random House, Thomas Rabe, the memoir could be the most successful memoir in history.
The firm had paid $60m (£48m) in 2017 for the rights to the book alongside that of former US President Barack Obama.
Obama had sold out arenas on her massive international book tour, where she has been interviewed onstage by Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Reese Witherspoon and former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, among others.
In its first week, “Becoming” sold more than 1.4 million copies, Penguin Random House said in November.
The book had the longest streak at No. 1 for any book since “Fifty Shades of Grey” came out in 2012, according to Amazon.
Michelle Obama’s book, which explores her experience from childhood, her work, motherhood and her time in The White House, has been praised for its universal appeal across genders and ages.
In it, she reveals difficulties in her marriage with Barack, disclosing details of how the couple suffered a miscarriage and later used in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to conceive both children, Malia and Sasha.
The 54-year-old also criticises the current US President, Donald Trump, writing that she can “never forgive” him for “putting my family’s safety at risk” over his championing of the “birther” theory that her husband was not born in the US and thus was not a legitimate president of the US.
