Pre-order: Belonging by Sonia Gandhi

It's official... HarperCollins India will publish Belonging: A Journey of Love by Sonia Gandhi. The long-awaited memoir will be published in India on 10 November 2026.

One of the most anticipated political memoirs of our time. Belonging is a dramatic and deeply personal story of love, identity, duty and belonging, and offers a rare insider's view of India's journey.

KUNZUM EXCLUSIVE: PRE-ORDER NOW!!

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Please scroll to the bottom for pre-ordering terms and conditions.

ABOUT THE BOOK
A SURPRISING, RICHLY TOLD MEMOIR THAT SEAMLESSLY WEAVES THE PERSONAL WITH THE POLITICAL TO TELL A RIVETING STORY: OF LOVE, OF FAMILY, AND OF AN ENDLESSLY FASCINATING COUNTRY, INDIA. 

How did a girl from a small village in Italy rise as a politician in India and become known around the world? 

Belonging begins in Cambridge, England, where in 1965 Sonia Maino, a nineteen-year-old student, falls in love at first sight with the handsome, dark-eyed young man she’s destined to marry: Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first Prime Minister. 

In this book, the once famously reticent Sonia Gandhi opens up with warmth and candour to tell the story of her remarkable life, from her childhood in postwar Veneto; 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. 

We witness Sonia’s introduction to her formidable mother-in-law, Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi, India’s first female Prime Minister. We see Sonia gain confidence by Rajiv’s side, as she adjusts to the sounds and sights of her new home – learning to speak Hindi, to wear saris, to relish spicy cuisine. 

Rajiv Gandhi begins work as a commercial airline pilot, and they raise their two children in the Prime Minister’s house in Delhi. But everything changes when Rajiv’s brother, Sanjay, also a pilot, is killed in a crash, and when, in 1984, Indira Gandhi is brutally assassinated by her security guards in the garden of her home. In the wake of his mother’s death, and despite Sonia’s fears, Rajiv steps into the role of Prime Minister. The couple travel across India and the world. Then, through Sonia’s wrenching retelling, we feel the full force of the tragedy when seven years later Rajiv, too, is assassinated, by a suicide bomber while on the campaign trail. 

Brushing aside the advice of her Italian family to return, Sonia heeds the call within her to stay in India. She is drawn into politics, becoming the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress. We see how, though once regarded as a foreign-born outsider, she comes to earn the trust and affection of millions. Yet when after a key election, the Congress Party selects her to become Prime Minister, she makes a rare decision – declining her country’s highest office, choosing instead to lead her Party in an alliance that will govern India for a decade.

This dramatic account, at once epic and 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 political, economic and social changes over fifty years. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
SONIA GANDHI grew up in the Piemontese village of Sangano and the town of Orbassano near Turin. After studying foreign languages in Turin she went to England to study English in Cambridge and in 1968 moved to India to marry Rajiv Gandhi. After his assassination, she published a pictorial biography of him, as well as a book of his photographs. She had earlier edited two volumes of a private correspondence between Indira Gandhi and her father Jawaharlal Nehru, Freedom’s Daughter and Two Alone, Two Together. She lives in New Delhi, presently as a Member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of India’s Parliament. Her son, Rahul, and her daughter, Priyanka, are Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House, where Rahul is also Leader of the Opposition.

TERMS OF PRE-ORDERING
The book is scheduled to be released November 10, 2026 in India. We expect to receive stocks on that date and despatches will be done the same day. Normal courier timings will apply. There might be changes to this by the publisher where Kunzum may not have much control.

Kunzum will offer a full refund if: (a) The book is not published for any reason (b) There is a delay of more than 7 days from date of launch / despatch.