New York

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, whose 544-page memoir will be published in November, has said writing about her life meant opening herself up and sharing experiences she had kept deep inside, as she reflected on the heartbreak and loss that drew her into politics.

“It was heartbreak and loss that threw me into the public world of politics. Up till then I had guarded my privacy fiercely,” Gandhi said in a statement issued here on Tuesday by publisher Alfred A Knopf.

“Writing about my life did not come easily to me. It meant opening myself up, sharing moments and experiences I had always held deep inside,” the senior Congress leader said.

Titled ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, the memoir will be released in hardcover and ebook by Knopf on November 10, with an audio edition to be published by Penguin Random House. The publisher said an announced first printing of 100,000 copies has been set.

Gandhi described the book as a “testament of my heart’s journey through the tender joys and dark despair” that marked her life.

“Much has been written about my family, but few narratives were able to reach into the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings,” said the veteran politician, adding that the book was “in many ways” a homage to their “humanness”.

The memoir traces Gandhi's journey from her childhood in post-war Italy to a life in India, where she married Rajiv Gandhi and became the daughter-in-law of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Gandhi said that as she gradually removed herself from the political sphere and looked back, the “thread of love and loyalty” running through her life became clearer.

The Congress leader described this journey as moving from “the simplicity of my childhood in small-town Italy” to the complexity of later years in India.

The book begins in Cambridge, England, in 1965, where Sonia Maino, then a 19-year-old student, falls in love with Rajiv Gandhi. They got married in another three years.

It recounts Sonia Gandhi’s introduction to Indira Gandhi, her efforts to learn Hindi, wear saris and relish Indian cuisine, as well as the tragedies that struck the Gandhi family.

Rajiv Gandhi's younger brother Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash, followed by the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. In the wake of his mother's death, Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister and was himself assassinated seven years later while on the campaign trail.

The memoir also covers Sonia Gandhi's eventual entry into politics after years of resisting pressure to do so, and her decision in 2004 to decline the prime minister's post after the Congress-led alliance won the election.

Gandhi said her story also offers readers a unique perspective on the social and political changes she had witnessed over six decades in India, describing it as “the beautiful country of my belonging”.

Knopf described the memoir as an intimate account of Sonia Gandhi's life and a story of love, family and India, offering a perspective on the country's “tumultuous post-independence history and its present political struggles”.

The publisher said the memoir also offers an insider's perspective on India's economic and social changes over six decades, while Gandhi reflects on identity, duty and the meaning of home.

Knopf Executive Vice President, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jordan Pavlin said the publishing house was “honoured” to publish the memoir, describing it as an account of Gandhi's life, resilience, family and history.

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

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"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 added.