Sonia Gandhi's Memoir 'Belonging' to Be Published by HarperCollins India

Sonia Gandhi's long-awaited memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, will now be published in India by HarperCollins India, the publisher confirmed on Friday. The book is scheduled for release on November 10.

HarperCollins described the work as one of the most anticipated political memoirs of recent times, offering a deeply personal narrative of love, identity, and duty, alongside a rare insider's view of India's political evolution over six decades.

The announcement follows Penguin Random House India's recent statement that it is not the publisher of the memoir in India. The company dismissed speculation that it had withdrawn because the author refused editorial changes, clarifying that it remained willing to publish the book but encountered an unresolved issue during discussions. Penguin cited confidentiality agreements in declining to elaborate on the specific point of contention.

In a statement issued earlier through Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Gandhi reflected on the memoir's purpose. She noted that much has been written about her family, but few narratives have captured the truth of their motivations and human failings. She described the book as a homage to their humanness and a unique perspective on the social and political changes she has witnessed.

The 79-year-old Congress leader writes about how her life was upended by the assassination of her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, in 1984, and the murder of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, seven years later. She later entered politics, becoming the longest-serving president of the Congress party, though she declined the offer to become prime minister. The party lost power to the BJP in 2014.

Gandhi also spoke of the personal cost of public life, stating that heartbreak and loss thrust her into politics, despite having fiercely guarded her privacy until then.