Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

In his signature larger-than-life style, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s memoir is a revealing self-portrait of his illustrious, controversial, and truly unique life.

The greatest immigrant success story of our time. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s story is unique—and uniquely entertaining—and he tells it brilliantly in these pages.

He was born in a year of famine in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star. By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe. Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry. Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family. Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow body­builders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California.

Now, with raw honesty and insight, he tells the story of his life in his own voice. Here is Arnold, with total recall.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, born in Thal, Austria, in 1947, was Governer of California from 2003–2011. Before that, he had a long career starring in such films as the Terminator series; Stay Hungry, for which he won a Golden Globe; Twins; Predator; and Junior. His first book, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, was a bestseller when publisher in 1977 and has never been out of print since. The New Modern Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding has sold more than half a million copies in the past decade. Total Recall is his first public reflection on his time as Governor during what was perhaps California’s most tumultous decade.