
King: A Life
“The award-winning Dion Graham…stirringly represents the many voices throughout the book and gives a particularly sensitive presentation of Dr. King.”
Barnes&Noble.com (audio review)
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
An AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year
A New York Times bestseller
A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year
A Smithsonian Magazine Pick of Top 10 Books of 2023
One of the New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year
A New York Times Notable Book of 2023
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2023
A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2023
One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year
A Time Magazine Best Book of 2023
A Chicago Tribune Book of the Year
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of 2023
Longlisted for the National Book Award
A Barnes & Noble Pick of American History Audiobooks
Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
Nominated for Plutarch Awards Nominee, 2024
Among longlisted titles for Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for NPR Best Book of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Audible.com Best of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023
Winner of Pulitzer Prize - Winner, 2024
Among longlisted titles for National Book Awards - Longlist, 2023
Among shortlisted titles for National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2023
Among longlisted titles for New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Financial Times Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2023
Nominated for Plutarch Awards Nominee, 2024
Among shortlisted titles for PEN Literary Award - Finalist, 2024
Among longlisted titles for Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for NPR Best Book of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Audible.com Best of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023
Winner of Pulitzer Prize - Winner, 2024
Among longlisted titles for National Book Awards - Longlist, 2023
Among shortlisted titles for National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2023
Among longlisted titles for New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Financial Times Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2023
Nominated for Plutarch Awards Nominee, 2024
Among shortlisted titles for PEN Literary Award - Finalist, 2024
Among longlisted titles for Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for NPR Best Book of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Audible.com Best of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023
Winner of Pulitzer Prize - Winner, 2024
Among longlisted titles for National Book Awards - Longlist, 2023
Among shortlisted titles for National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2023
Among longlisted titles for New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for Financial Times Books of the Year, 2023
Among longlisted titles for New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2023
Winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Best Nonfiction Narrator!
This program is narrated by Dion Graham, narrator of over 300 audiobooks and an AudioFile Golden Voice. Dion has won multiple Earphones and Audie Awards.
"Dion Graham superbly narrates this riveting audiobook, emulating the majestic cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, speeches. He captures the Civil Rights leader's deep, resonant tone; deliberate ministerial intonation; and, during offstage moments, his world-weariness... The result is a monumental biography performed exquisitely by a Golden Voice narrator."- AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)
"This gripping biography of a revolutionary leader flies by. Listeners interested in a new perspective of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life will be captivated."—Library Journal
"King is a major achievement. With eloquence, compassion, and grace, Jonathan Eig offers a stirringly contemporary and complex portrait of a fully human—and humane—King . . . A resounding triumph." —Peniel E. Joseph,  author of The Sword and the Shield
"Eig has pulled off a kind of miracle. Here is the King we know, think we know and ought to know. Here is the leader, the preacher, the orator, the husband, the father, the martyr, the human being—not with melodramatic halo in place, but in all his heroic, tragic Glory. Hallelujah!" —Ken Burns
Named a most anticipated book of 2023 by The Washington Post, The Millions, and Literary Hub
The first full biography in decades, King mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times. 
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.
In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Praise
