Conversations with Myself
Conversations with Myself draws on Nelson Mandela's personal archive: the notebooks he kept on Robben Island, the letters he wrote to family and comrades, the journals from his presidency, and hours of taped interviews recorded after his release. The book is arranged thematically rather than as a straight biography, moving from his early years and political awakening through his decades in prison and into the years after he became South Africa's first democratically elected president. President Barack Obama wrote the foreword. The result is less a polished autobiography than a sustained look at the inner life of a man working out, in private, how to lead.
Also by Nelson Mandela
What you might want to know about Conversations with Myself
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A private portrait of Nelson Mandela assembled from his prison notebooks, letters, diaries, and recorded conversations.
In her December 2018 By the Book interview with The New York Times, Michelle Obama named Conversations with Myself among the books that influenced her, saying she returns to Mandela's words for their honesty and for the quiet record of how he carried himself through prison and into power.
No. Long Walk to Freedom is Mandela's narrative autobiography. Conversations with Myself is a separate book built from his private writings and recorded interviews, offering a more fragmented and personal view.
Conversations with Myself was written by Nelson Mandela, published in 2010 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Conversations with Myself is 480 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Conversations with Myself takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
Conversations with Myself is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
