S&S UK snaps up Abedin's memoir

Simon & Schuster UK has landed a "significant and superb" memoir by Hillary Clinton's longterm aide Huma Abedin. 

Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds tells the story of her coming of age as an American Muslim, the daughter of Indian and Pakistani scholars who split their time between Saudi Arabia, the United States and the UK. The memoir grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage and motherhood.

It shares Abedin’s personal accounts as an aide to Clinton during her years as First Lady, US Senator, a presidential candidate, Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee, and is a "candid and moving reckoning" of Abedin’s marriage to former Congressman Anthony Weiner. 

Both/And will be published on 2nd November 2021, with simultaneous publication by Scribner in the US and Simon & Schuster Inc’s international companies in Australia, Canada and India, and as an audiobook by Simon & Schuster Audio. Scribner US acquired world English publishing rights in all formats of the book from Creative Artists Agency, which represented the author. 

"We knew Huma Abedin had a story to tell," said Nan Graham, senior vice president and publisher of Scribner. “We knew that in her compassion and courage, her resilience and grace, her work ethic and her mission, she is an inspiration to people of all ages. What we did not know is that she has a writer’s gift, a singular voice on the page. We are thrilled to be publishing this superb and significant memoir about the shaping of a character and the extraordinary worlds in which she has travelled."

Abedin commented: "For most of my life, I was viewed through the lens of others, a refraction of someone else’s pronoun. 'They' as in the parents who raised me; 'she' as in the woman I worked for; and 'he as in the man I married," said Huma Abedin. "Writing this book gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own life – from the nurturing family I was privileged to be born into, to working for one of the most compelling leaders of our time. This journey has led me through exhilarating milestones and devastating setbacks. I have walked both with great pride and in overwhelming shame. It is a life I am – more than anything – enormously grateful for and a story I look forward to sharing."

"It is an immense privilege to be publishing Huma’s remarkable memoir," added Suzanne Baboneau, m.d. of the adult publishing division. "It will be far-reaching in its appeal, describing as Huma does, in the most vibrant and beautiful prose, a life that has crossed many boundaries, risen to many challenges and realized untold ambitions. Her resilience and humility, her courage and her spirit, and her love of her family and all that they stand for, shine out on every page.  Huma is dazzling to meet, and this absorbing and timely memoir is dazzling to read."