Viking, an imprint of Penguin General, to publish autobiography of Pope Francis

HOPE
The first memoir written by a sitting pope

To be published globally in major languages in 80 countries on 14 January, 2025 including by Viking in the UK
Featuring 25-30 black and white photographs including from Pope Francis himself

Viking, an imprint of Penguin General, will publish Hope, the autobiography of Pope Francis, in the UK. The book, which has taken the last six years to write, will be published simultaneously in January to coincide with the 2025 Jubilee – a special time of forgiveness, spiritual renewal, and celebration coming every 25 years.

The book was announced today, 16 October, at the Frankfurt Book Fair by Mondadori, who manage world rights. Publishing Director Daniel Crewe and Senior Commissioning Editor Shyam Kumar acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Denise Cronin at Random House US, who will publish simultaneously. The audiobook edition will be released simultaneously in English by Penguin Random House Audio.  

The book cover image was also revealed today, and can be viewed here.

With a wealth of revelations and unpublished stories, moving and very human, poignant and dramatic, but also capable of real humour, Pope Francis’s memoir starts off in the early years of the twentieth century with the story of his Italian roots and his ancestors’ adventure of emigration to Latin America, moving on to his childhood, adolescence, choice of vocation, adult life, covering the whole of his papacy up to the present day.

In recounting his memories with intimate narrative force (not forgetting his own personal passions), Pope Francis deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy and writes candidly, fearlessly and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times: war and peace (including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East), migration, environmental crisis, social policy, the position of women, sexuality, technological developments, the future of the Church and of religion in general.

The book, destined to fascinate readers throughout the world and to represent a legacy of hope for future generations, is enhanced by remarkable photographs, including private and unpublished material made personally available by the Pope himself.

Written with Carlo Musso, former Non-Fiction Editorial Director of Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer, and then founder of the independent publisher Libreria Pienogiorno, in accordance with the wishes of Pope Francis this exceptional document was originally intended to be published after his death, but the new Jubilee of Hope announced for 2025, and the needs of our times, have moved him to make this precious legacy available now.

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Pope Francis says: “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. 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. It seems like yesterday, and yet it’s tomorrow. All is born to blossom in an eternal springtime. In the end, we will say only: I don’t recall anything in which You are not there.”

Carlo Musso says: “It has been a long, intense adventure that has taken up the past six years: work on writing it began in March 2019 and will be completed in the forthcoming weeks.”

Daniel Crewe and Shyam Kumar say: “Pope Francis is a trailblazing and inspirational leader and Hope will be a powerful and personal book that will sit proudly alongside those by Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on the Viking list. 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. This will be an extraordinary global publication and a wonderful book for believers and non-believers alike.”

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International publishers:

These are the publishers now involved in the publication: Italy Mondadori, USA Random House, UK Viking, France Albin Michel, Germany Penguin Random House / Kösel-Verlag, Spain Penguin Random House, Portugal Penguin Random House, Brazil Companhia das letras, Croatia Znanje, Slovakia Ikar, Hungary Kossuth Kiado, Romania Polirom, Greece Gutenberg Dardanos, Korea Catholic Publishing House, Catalonia Penguin Random House / Rosa del vents, Poland Swiat Ksiazki, Lithuania Lithuanian Writers Union.

For rights information:

Francesca Gariazzo – francesca.gariazzo@mondadori.it
Cristiana Patriarca – cristiana.patriarca@mondadori.it

About Pope Francis:

Born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936, the son of Italian migrants, the first of five children born in the working-class barrio of Flores, Jorge Mario Bergoglio qualified as a chemical technician, graduated in philosophy in 1963, and became a priest in 1969. He was appointed provincial of the Jesuits of Argentina in 1973, and was named auxiliary bishop in 1992, archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and created cardinal in 2001. In 2013, he became the Bishop of Rome and the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.

Hope was written in collaboration with Carlo Musso.

About Viking:

Founded in the UK forty years ago and publishing across non-fiction and fiction, Viking’s non-fiction authors range from world leaders to sporting legends, from cutting-edge scientists to prize-winning historians, and from distinguished journalists to eminent philosophers.

Viking’s authors include Antony Beevor, William Boyd, Jonathan Coe, Tana French, Miranda Cowley Heller, Emily Henry, Billie Jean King, Ben Macintyre, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Richard Osman, John Preston, Anna Funder, Elif Shafak, Art Spiegelman and Elizabeth Strout.

For further information:

Olivia Mead
omead@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
07817 435718 / 020 7139 3707