Source NDTV
NEW DELHI: Penguin Random House India (PRHI) has officially dismissed media reports claiming it backed out of publishing Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s highly anticipated memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, over disagreements regarding manuscript edits.
In a statement released on Friday, the publishing house clarified its stance, stating that while it is not the publisher of the memoir in India, the decision was not a result of the author rejecting proposed changes. The clarification comes on the heels of a report by The Indian Express, which alleged that PRHI had pulled the plug on the project after Gandhi turned down demands for certain “editorial changes and deletions” in a section of the book.
“Any suggestion that Penguin Random House India decided not to publish Belonging because the author declined editorial changes does not accurately reflect the circumstances,” the company said in its statement.
The publisher emphasized that fact-checking and offering recommendations are standard industry practices. “As a publisher, it is both our prerogative and our responsibility to fact check and provide authors with recommendations that are in the best interests of their books,” the spokesperson added, noting that throughout their discussions, PRHI remained “willing and keen to publish the book”. The company declined to comment further on what it termed “confidential discussions” with the author.
While Penguin is out of the race for the Indian edition, several top publishers are reportedly vying for the domestic rights, with sources suggesting that HarperCollins is close to finalizing an agreement.
Internationally, the memoir remains scheduled for release on November 10, 2026, through US publisher Alfred A. Knopf—an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which ironically falls under the global Penguin Random House umbrella. Knopf had previously announced a massive initial print run of 100,000 copies for the title.
Belonging: A Journey of Love is billed as Gandhi’s most personal and definitive account of her life. The 79-year-old Congress veteran chronicles her journey from a childhood in post-war Italy to her romance with Rajiv Gandhi in Cambridge, her relocation to India, and her integration into the Nehru-Gandhi family. The memoir is also expected to detail the tragic assassinations of her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, and her husband, as well as her eventual entry into politics and her landmark decision to decline the prime minister’s post in 2004.
