New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi remembered his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 82nd birth anniversary, and shared details of his mother Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, titled Belonging: A Journey of Love.
Sonia Gandhi’s 544-page memoir is set to be released in hardcover on 10 November, publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced on Tuesday. Penguin Random House will also release an audio edition of the book.
“I am happy, and so proud, that your story — Belonging: A Journey of Love — will finally be read by the millions of people who love you. I know how hard it was for someone as private as you to tell the world your beautiful story,” Rahul Gandhi wrote. “Today, on his birthday, I can see Papa smiling and looking down proudly at his beautiful Sonia.”
The book offers a deeply personal account of Sonia Gandhi’s life, relationships and experiences, including her journey alongside Rajiv Gandhi and her years in public life.
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 19-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.”
“For me, it’s one of the greatest love stories of our time. I feel privileged to have witnessed it and I am happy that through her book, everyone will get to know my mother for what she truly is – a brave, loyal, compassionate woman, who is also tough as nails and great fun when she wants to be,” wrote Priyanka Gandhi in her Instagram post on Thursday.
Also read: PM Modi can ‘forgive himself’ for ‘undignified slander’ against Manmohan—Sonia Gandhi
Glimpse of personal life to tragedies
The book traces Sonia Gandhi’s life from her childhood in post-war Italy and her love story that led her to India, to the profound personal losses that changed the course of her life and had a lasting impact on the country she came to call home.
The memoir will shed light on Gandhi’s introduction to her “formidable mother-in-law, India’s first female prime minister: Indira Gandhi.” The book also mentions Sonia Gandhi’s reluctant entry into politics. After years of resisting calls to join public life, she eventually takes on the challenge, going on to become the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress.
“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,” reads the book description.
In her post, Priyanka Gandhi described the book as a testament to her mother’s life, portraying Sonia Gandhi as a woman whose journey has been shaped by her enduring love for her husband and India.
“On my father’s birthday today, I think he would have been especially proud of my mother for having written her story with so much heart and honesty,” she said.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)