Belonging

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 post-war 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. Movingly, the book goes behind the scenes of a renowned political family. Most revelatory of all is the portrait of Sonia herself as she invites readers into her private joys and travails, as well as the people and events that shaped her. In a voice at once perceptive and modest, she shares her insights into identity, duty, and the meaning of home. Belongingis at heart one courageous woman’s story of falling in love with a man and a country, of finding the strength to remake her life and to serve India, the place where she belongs.