- Published: 21 October 2025
- ISBN: 9781529160598
- Imprint: Penguin
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 384
- RRP: $27.99
Surrender
Bono Autobiography: 40 Songs, One Story

















- Published: 21 October 2025
- ISBN: 9781529160598
- Imprint: Penguin
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 384
- RRP: $27.99
Powerful and candid ... a must read
Publishers Weekly
Bono's memoir bares his soul ... Has any rock superstar written a more revealing biography? He deftly balances the comical and profound and packs anecdotes with cameos by the rich and famous, from Frank Sinatra to Pope John Paul II
Neil McCormick, Telegraph
This is Bono at his best: thoughtful, reflective, revealing a wisdom that his rock-star persona covers up ... At the root of it all you don't doubt his decency or integrity
Will Hodgkinson, The Times
A rattling good yarn ... characteristically expansive, but it whizzes by ... Bono has storytelling verve and a genuine desire for self-examination and is enthusiastic about praising others, often at his own expense. ... [a] generous, energetic book
Dorian Lynskey, Guardian
Beautifully evoked, a mixture of Joycean exuberance and Chandleresque irony ... most revealing are the intimate personal experiences that shaped him and his chaotic creative process. Punctuating it all is the music. Each chapter uses a U2 song to pull us down memory lane
Mariella Frostrup, Sunday Times
A rewarding read about a loss-fuelled life lived to the full ... What makes much of this book so exciting and interesting, is that the sadness is overwhelmed by a desperate, frenzied desire to use life more richly since it has proved to be so fragile. Sadness is replaced here by an extraordinary and breathless zeal for friendship but also for love ... Surrender is, in its own generous way, a book written by an Irishman to tell his mother how much he misses her, to tell his mates how much he rates them, and to let his wife and children know how much he loves them
Colm Toibin, Irish Times
Bono's honesty will win over his harshest critics ... the U2 frontman's memoir is a trumph ... Honest, witty, informative and beautifully written. Surrender will surely join the ranks of the great rock memoirs
Irish Independent
Bono's prose is electrifyingly good. Not confected memories, but the messy, sometimes bathetic minutiae of lived experience, emotions remembered but only truly understood with hindsight and vocabulary that comes much later
Pete Paphides, author of 'Broken Greek'
Will engage and entertain you, full of extraordinary anecdotes and people from Sinatra and Johnny Cash to Pope Benedict and presidents.
Catherine Meyer, author and founder of WEP
Bono's book is absolutely brilliant
Simon Schama
A brilliant, very funny, very revealing, autobiography-through-music. Maybe the best book ever written about being a rockstar
Caitlin Moran
Music lovers will enjoy a trip back to the days when mosh pits were sweaty and radio play was all important, while some readers may well be surprised by the level at which Bono's activism goes far beyond photo opportunities. Meanwhile the U2 fans, the die hards, will pore over it, and relish the opportunity to follow Bono into his home ... Surrender is the closest most of those fans will ever come to having a pint with the man himself and they'll find him very entertaining company. In many ways this book is a 'thank you' to them, too.
RTÉ
A well-written, insightful deep dive into one of the most intriguing and insistent voices of our time
The Business Post
I was really moved...There are stories in this book that are just unbelievable...an incredible read
Zoe Ball
Surrender soars whenever the spotlight comes on...open and honest, with language that can be witty and distinctive
New York Times
Honest and direct...This is the rare rock star memoir written by a rock star who, you get the impression, could have been a writer...Bono has a gift for making even the unattainable seem relatable
L.A. Times
Bono confesses his fears and failings in this likeable and self-aware memoir...the U2 frontman has written the kind of A-list memoir that befits both the singer in a planet sized band and a clout wielding activist....Surrender gives him a different voice, showing an unsually driven man doing what he can, no matter the arena.
Victoria Segal, Sunday Times
An often humble retelling of one of rock's most gilded careers ... Bono orbits a rarefied stratosphere - Nelson Mandela, Diana, Princess of Wales, Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II, Bill Gates and Mikhail Gorbachev all make an appearance - that could have made for a never-ending parade of backslapping. But as he tells of these encounters, he subtly, cleverl, positions himself as the subordinate party. It sums Bono up, a man who doesn't see parameters, only opportunities. Surrender is a riveting account of a life spent chasing them down.
i
An engaging read, vividly evoking growing up in Dublin, family, friends and the tragedy of his mother's death.
Daily Mail
Heartfelt...I expected a remarkable story but I didn't expect to be so charmed by the storyteller
Jake Kerridge, Daily Mirror
Bono's new memoir, Surrender, elevates the audiobook into an art form. Not only does Bono have a gorgeous speaking voice, gentle, self-deprecating and warm...I don't know why anyone would read Surrender when you can lose yourself in this soundscape
Janice Turner, The Times
Action-packed...the U2 singer's memoir resounds with the clang, bang, smash of VIP name-dropping, but is undercut with constant admissions of the writer's uncoolness and capacity for cringe...storytelling is undercut with mediations on music and musicians, culture and politics, faith and family, all in a prose style Bono watchers will recognise from his interviews
Mojo
The most intellectually engaging rock memoir since Bob Dylanb's Chronicles
Paul Muldoon, Times Literary Supplement
Exceeds expectations, revealing the U2 singer not to be the earnest preacher of Live Aid legend but a man blessed with wry self-knowledge
Sunday Times
A terrific memoir, not just of the strangeness of rock stardom but more importantly of the ordinary aspects of life: grief, loss, love, his complex relationship with his father. You come for the celebrity but stay for the familiarities that are explored with tenderness and grace
Irish Times
Honest, thoughtful, human and often very funny...Surrender amounts to a fascinating song of experience
Mail on Sunday
Brilliant...Such an interesting read
Chris Evans
Bono's memoir brings you behind the curtain for a peek at his extraordinary life
Irish Examiner