{"product_id":"belonging-a-journey-of-love","title":"BELONGING A JOURNEY OF LOVE - Release Date 10 NOVEMBER 2026","description":"\u003cp\u003eA SURPRISING, RICHLY TOLD MEMOIR THAT SEAMLESSLY WEAVES THE\u003cbr\u003ePERSONAL WITH THE POLITICAL TO TELL A RIVETING STORY: OF LOVE,\u003cbr\u003eOF FAMILY, AND OF AN ENDLESSLY FASCINATING COUNTRY, INDIA.\u003cbr\u003eHow did a girl from a small village in Italy rise as a politician in India and\u003cbr\u003ebecome known around the world?\u003cbr\u003eBelonging begins in Cambridge, England, where in 1965 Sonia Maino, a\u003cbr\u003enineteen-year-old student, falls in love at first sight with the handsome, darkeyed young man she’s destined to marry: Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of Jawaharlal\u003cbr\u003eNehru, independent India’s first Prime Minister.\u003cbr\u003eIn this book, the once famously reticent Sonia Gandhi opens up with warmth\u003cbr\u003eand 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\u003cbr\u003ewill reshape not only her own future but also that of her adopted home.\u003cbr\u003eWe witness Sonia’s introduction to her formidable mother-in-law, Nehru’s\u003cbr\u003edaughter Indira Gandhi, India’s first female Prime Minister. We see Sonia gain\u003cbr\u003econfidence by Rajiv’s side, as she adjusts to the sounds and sights of her new\u003cbr\u003ehome – learning to speak Hindi, to wear saris, to relish spicy cuisine.\u003cbr\u003eRajiv Gandhi begins work as a commercial airline pilot, and they raise their two\u003cbr\u003echildren in the Prime Minister’s house in Delhi.\u003cbr\u003eBut everything changes when Rajiv’s brother, Sanjay, also a pilot, is killed in a\u003cbr\u003ecrash, and when, in 1984, Indira Gandhi is brutally assassinated by her security\u003cbr\u003eguards in the garden of her home. In the wake of his mother’s death, and\u003cbr\u003edespite Sonia’s fears, Rajiv steps into the role of Prime Minister. The couple\u003cbr\u003etravel across India and the world. Then, through Sonia’s wrenching retelling, we\u003cbr\u003efeel the full force of the tragedy when seven years later Rajiv, too, is assassinated,\u003cbr\u003eby a suicide bomber while on the campaign trail.\u003cbr\u003eBrushing aside the advice of her Italian family to return, Sonia heeds the call\u003cbr\u003ewithin her to stay in India. She is drawn into politics, becoming the longestserving president of the Indian National Congress. We see how, though once\u003cbr\u003eregarded as a foreign-born outsider, she comes to earn the trust and affection of\u003cbr\u003emillions. Yet when after a key election, the Congress Party selects her to become\u003cbr\u003ePrime Minister, she makes a rare decision – declining her country’s highest\u003cbr\u003eoffice, choosing instead to lead her Party in an alliance that will govern India for\u003cbr\u003ea decade.\u003cbr\u003eThis dramatic account, at once epic and intimate, gives readers a unique lens on\u003cbr\u003eIndia – its tumultuous post-independence history and its present political\u003cbr\u003estruggles--offering an insider’s keen perspective on the country’s enormous\u003cbr\u003epolitical, economic and social changes over fifty years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxfordbookstore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45961563865267,"sku":"9789309961410","price":1039.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/4164\/4723\/files\/71rJpw-gCVL._SL1200.avif?v=1788590667","url":"https:\/\/oxfordbookstore.com\/products\/belonging-a-journey-of-love","provider":"Oxfordbookstore ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}