In a development, HarperCollins India has secured the publishing rights for Sonia Gandhi’s highly awaited memoir titled “Belonging: A Journey of Love,” scheduled for release on November 10, 2026, following a rift with Penguin Random House India. The high-tension move came after weeks of speculations in the industry about how the book will find its way to Indian bookshelves.
According to Penguin Random House India, there was an unresolved deadlock on some editorial recommendations leading to the parting ways. Though initially it was rumored that there were issues with editorial recommendations on manuscript changes leading to the deadlock, Penguin explained that it was a deadlock in some confidential conversations.
Penguin said that despite being willing to manage the publication of the book, it was impossible to reconcile standard fact-checking and editorial prerogatives.
This happened shortly after initial plans for the domestic release of the book were unveiled in announcements from Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, USA detailing the late 2026 global rollout.
Through Knopf’s official statement, the 79-year-old political leader said that her book takes the readers into the depths of her humanity behind her family’s public persona. Her private life went topsy-turvy after the assassination of her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, and seven years later, the assassination of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi.
The heartbreak and losses compelled her to come out of her strictly guarded privacy and assume the leadership of the Indian National Congress party. She held the position of the party’s longest-serving president but never accepted the position of the prime minister before her party lost power to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP in 2014.
The memoir will provide the readers with an exclusive glimpse of six decades of political upheaval in India through the eyes of one of the most closely guarded political leaders of our time.
Now that HarperCollins India will handle the local marketing of the book, the industry experts believe that there will be tremendous demand from the retailers for this upcoming title due to its launch date of November.
