'In revelatory memoir, Sonia Gandhi invites readers into her private world of joys and travails': Publisher

A memoir by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, set to be published in November this year, is a "revelatory" book that will tell a "riveting personal and political" story about her life from Italy to India.

The 544-page memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’ will also tell about the “shattering losses that will reshape not only her own future but also that of her adopted home.”

Gandhi’s memoir will be released November 10 by publishing giant Alfred A. Knopf.

A book description about the memoir on the website of Penguin Random House described it as a “surprising memoir that tells a riveting personal and political story of love, family, and an endlessly fascinating country: India.”

Gandhi’s memoir begins in Cambridge, England, “where in 1965 Sonia Maino, a nineteen-year-old student, falls in love at first sight with the handsome young man she's destined to marry: Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.”

The description adds that “In this revelatory book, the once famously reticent Sonia Gandhi opens up with warmth and candour to narrate her remarkable life, from her childhood in post-war Italy, to the romance that brings her to India, to the shattering losses that will reshape not only her own future but also that of her adopted home.”

The memoir will shed light on Gandhi’s introduction to her "formidable mother-in-law, India’s first female prime minister: Indira Gandhi."

“We see Sonia gain confidence by Rajiv’s side as she learns to speak Hindi, wear saris, and relish India’s cuisine,” it said.

The memoir will also talk about the tragedies that strike the Gandhi household in the wake of the death of Rajiv Gandhi’s brother Sanjay in a plane crash, followed by Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984.

“In the wake of his mother's death, despite Sonia’s fears, Rajiv steps into the role of prime minister. In Sonia’s vivid, wrenching retelling, we feel the full force of the tragedy when seven years later Rajiv, too, while on his campaign trail, is assassinated by a suicide bomber,” the description said.

It added that for several years “Sonia resists the pressure to join politics, but ultimately accepts the challenge, becoming the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress Party and earning the trust and affection of millions."

"But after a key election, when the Congress Party selects her to be prime minister, she makes an astonishing decision — declining the highest office, choosing instead to lead her party in an alliance that will govern the country for a decade.”

"This dramatic account, epic yet intimate, gives readers a unique lens on India — its tumultuous post-independence history and its present political struggles, offering an insider’s keen perspective on the country’s enormous economic and social changes over sixty years."

"Most moving of all is the portrait of Sonia herself as she invites readers into her private world of joys and travails. In a voice at once perceptive and modest, she shares her insights into identity, duty, and the meaning of home. Belonging is at heart one courageous woman’s story of finding the strength to remake her life and serve her country,” it said.

Alfred A Knopf is an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is a division of Penguin Random House.