Pope Francis has written an autobiography, publisher Penguin Random House (PRH) has announced. Hope, which will be published globally in January next year, is the first such book written by a sitting pope.
The pope and his chosen co-writer, Italian publisher Carlo Musso, have been working on the book for the last six years. The original plan was to publish it after his death, but the opportunity to publish at the time of the 2025 Jubilee – a time dedicated to forgiveness, spiritual renewal and celebration in the Catholic church that happens every 25 years – as well as “the needs of our times”, moved the pope to release it while he is still alive, according to PRH.
Hope tells Francis’s life story, from his Italian roots and his ancestors’ emigration to Latin America, to his childhood, adolescence, choice of vocation and adult life, covering the whole of his papacy up to the present day.
“In recounting his memories with intimate narrative force and reflecting on his own personal passions, Pope Francis deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy and writes candidly, courageously, and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times,” according to PRH.
“The book of my life is the story of a journey of hope, a journey that I cannot separate from the journey of my family, of my people, of all God’s people. In every page, in every passage, it is also the book of those who have travelled with me, of those who came before, of those who will follow,” Pope Francis said. “An autobiography is not our own private story, but rather the baggage we carry with us. And memory is not just what we recall, but what surrounds us. It doesn’t speak only about what has been, but about what will be.”
Writing the book, which will contain a selection of previously unpublished photographs alongside the text, “has been a long, intense adventure”, Musso said.
Publishing director Daniel Crewe and senior commissioning editor Shyam Kumar at Viking, the imprint of PRH that will be publishing Hope in the UK, described the title as “a powerful and personal book”.
“We were amazed by the vividness and intimacy of his writing which reflects on controversial questions from global conflicts to the future of the church, as well as discussing his passions from football to tango,” they added.
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The pope’s previous books include Let Us Dream, his reflections written during lockdown, and Life: My Story Through History, in which the pontiff looked back on the most significant occurrences of the past eight decades. That book, however, was based on interviews about his views on and experiences of events across the 20th century, making Hope his first full account of his life.
Hope will be published in 80 countries on 14 January, 2025. The UK edition, published by Viking, is translated by Richard Dixon.
