Penguin India dropped Sonia Gandhi's memoir
The Indian arm wanted cuts she refused. Knopf still has a November 10 date abroad.
Penguin Random House India will not publish Sonia Gandhi's memoir in India, The Indian Express reported on Friday.
Sources told the paper that Penguin India had asked for "editorial changes and deletions" in part of the manuscript. Gandhi turned that down. The book is titled Belonging: A Journey of Love.
Alfred A. Knopf, the U.S. imprint, announced on 18 August that it will publish the memoir on 10 November, with a first printing of 100,000 copies. The book runs 544 pages. It covers her move from Italy, the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, her years at the head of Congress, and her decision to turn down the prime minister's post in 2004.
In a Knopf statement, Gandhi said much has been written about her family, but that few narratives reached "the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings." She called the book a homage to their humanness.
The Express said several Indian publishers are now in the fray, and that HarperCollins is reported to be close to a deal to publish and distribute the book in India. That has not been confirmed by HarperCollins. News18 noted last week that Penguin Random House India had not yet announced an Indian date, even as Knopf locked the U.S. one.
A Congress president's memoir is a publishing event in India. The fight is over what stays in the Indian edition.
Knopf will still print it in English for the rest of the world. Indian readers may get a different publisher, or a wait.
Watch who signs the Indian rights, and whether the November 10 date holds here.