Books News

Obama's half-brother George signs book deal

Jun 16, 2009, 13:25 GMT

New York - US President Barack Obama's half-brother, George Obama, is working on a book to be published by Simon & Schuster, the US publishing giant said in a statement Monday.

George Obama, 27, is the youngest of the seven children born to Obama's father in Kenya and was recently arrested there for marijuana possession. The two Obamas have different mothers and never met until Obama visited Kenya in 1987.

The book is tentatively titled Homeland and is scheduled for publication in January 2010. It will be co-written by Damien Lewis, author of the books Apache Dawn, Cobra Gold, Operation Certain Death, Bloody Heroes, Slave and Desert Claw.

'Even had George Obama not been our president's half brother, his story is moving and inspirational,' said Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal. 'It is an object lesson in survival, selflessness and courage.'

The publishing deal makes George the fourth member of the Obama clan to sign a book deal in recent months. Shortly before his inauguration, Obama signed a deal for a teenage version of his best- selling book Dreams From My Father. Basketball coach Craig Robinson, the president's brother-in-law and First Lady Michelle Obama's brother, is writing a book called A Game of Character. Obama's half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng is writing a children's book called Ladder to the Moon.