U2 singer Bono has mentioned the death of his mother in his upcoming memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.
The singer whose real name is Paul Hewson, lost his mother Iris when he was 14 years old, after she collapsed at her father’s funeral.
The memoir itself, arrives on November 1 from the publishing house Alfred A. Knopf, with the audiobook arriving via Penguin Random House. Find out how you can pre order the memoir here.
The book will explore the origins of 40 key U2 tracks from the band’s discography. Each chapter is named after a song it covers, as it explores the life story of U2 frontman Bono.
“never spoken of again”
In his memoir, Bono has claimed that his mother was “never spoken of again” following her death.
“I fear it was worse than that. That we rarely thought of her again. We were three Irish men, and we avoided the pain that we knew would come from thinking and speaking about her”, Bono said.
Bono continued, “Even though it’s Grandda’s funeral, and even though Iris has fainted, we’re kids, cousins, running around and laughing. Until Ruth, my mother’s younger sister, bursts through the door. ‘Iris is dying. She’s had a stroke”.
“Three days later Norman and I are brought into the hospital to say goodbye. She’s alive but barely… Ruth is outside the hospital room, wailing, with my father, whose eyes have less life in them than my mother’s. I enter the room at war with the universe, but Iris looks peaceful. It’s hard to figure that a large part of her has already left. We hold her hand. There’s a clicking sound, but we don’t hear it”.
Earlier this Summer, Bono also revealed that he also has a secret half brother, who he “loves and adores”. More on this from Nova here.
