Based on hundreds of interviews and documents, this book chronicles the forces that shaped the first black president of the United States and explains why he thinks and acts as he does.

Introduction : It's not even past -- In search of El Dorado -- Luoland -- "In this our life" -- Nairobi days -- Afraid of smallness -- Beautiful isle of somewhere -- Hapa -- Orbits -- "Such a world" -- Marked man -- What school you went? -- Barry Obama -- Riding Poniyem -- Mainland -- End and beginning -- The moviegoer -- Genevieve and the veil -- Finding and being found.