Penguin India says it is not publisher of Sonia’s memoir

New Delhi: Penguin Random House India (PRHI) Friday said it has been keen to publish Sonia Gandhi’s memoir “Belonging: A Journey of Love” throughout “the relevant discussions”, but it is their “prerogative and responsibility” to fact-check authors. It is not the publisher of the book in India, PRHI said in a statement, days after American publisher Alfred A Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced that “Belonging” would release November 10. The statement follows a media report claiming that the publisher backed out after Gandhi refused “editorial changes” to the manuscript. “PRHI is not the publisher of Belonging in India.

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. “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. This is a normal part of the publishing process. Throughout the relevant discussions, Penguin Random House India’s position was that we remained willing and keen to publish the book,” it said. Even as the status of the book’s distributor in India remains uncertain, a page on e-commerce website Amazon showed an ebook version of “Belonging” up for pre-order at Rs 2,615.

According to the e-commerce website, the e-book is published by William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins UK. The book’s India release has been a matter of much speculation since Alfred A Knopf’s announcement.

The Congress leader will share her intimate story of marrying into one of India’s most powerful political families, the tragedy of losing Rajiv Gandhi that threw her into the “public world of politics,” and turning down prime ministership in 2004, among other things, according to Alfred A Knopf. Gandhi, 79, who has rarely shared her private life in public forums, narrates her life, “from her childhood in post-war Italy, 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”, it said. Several Congress leaders lashed out at PRHI, asking what prevented it from publishing the memoir in India when it was being published worldwide by its imprint.