Kamala´s Way: An American Life

A revelatory biography of the first Black woman elected Vice President of the United States--and in a history-making turn of events the Democrats´ 2024 Presidential nominee--charting how the daughter of two immigrants in segregated California became one of this country´s most effective power players. There´s very little that´s conventional about Kamala Harris, and yet her personal story also represents the best of America. She grew up the eldest daughter of a single mother, a no-nonsense cancer researcher who emigrated from India at the age of nineteen in search of a better education. She and her husband, an accomplished economist from Jamaica, split up when Kamala was only five. The Kamala Harris the public knows today is tough, smart, quick-witted, and demanding. She´s a prosecutor--her one-liners are legendary--but she´s more reticent when it comes to sharing much about herself, even in her memoirs. Fortunately, former Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Morain has been there from the start. In Kamala´s Way, he "offers an essential roadmap" (Politico) to her career from its beginnings handling child molestation cases and homicides for the Alameda County District Attorney´s office and her relationship as a twenty-nine-year-old with the most powerful man in the state: married Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a relationship that would prove life-changing. Morain takes readers through Harris´s years in the San Francisco District Attorney´s Office, explores her audacious embrace of the little-known Barack Obama, and shows the sharp elbows she deployed to make it to the US Senate. He analyzes her failure as a presidential candidate and the behind-the-scenes campaign she waged to land the Vice President spot. Along the way, he paints a "revealing portrait" (The New York Times Book Review) of her values and priorities, the sorts of problems she´s good at solving, and the missteps, risks, and bold moves she´s made on her way to the top. Kamala´s Way is essential reading for all Americans curious about the woman standing by Joe Biden´s side.