Francis to publish new autobiography
An autobiography of Pope Francis will be published next January. Entitled “Hope,” the book will be published simultaneously in more than 80 countries.
Announced by the Italian publisher Mondadori at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany October 16, a new autobiography of Pope Francis will be published next January, titled Hope. The book will be released in 80 countries to mark the Jubilee of 2025. It will be available in the United States and the United Kingdom on January 14, 2025, published by Penguin Random House. It will simultaneously be published in 80 countries.
According to the publisher, the autobiography was originally planned to be published after the pope’s death, but he “ultimately wanted it to be released during his lifetime to mark the end of his pontificate,” explained the French editor Albin Michel.
Further reading: Pope Francis shares his hopes for the Church’s future in new autobiography
“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 traveled with me, of those who came before, of those who will follow,” Pope Francis said in the publisher's press release.
Six years of writing
The work, whose writing began in 2019, is co-written with Italian Carlo Musso, former editorial director of Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer, and later founder of the independent publisher Libreria Pienogiorno.
According to Penguin Random House, this “complete autobiography starts in the early years of the 20th century, with Pope Francis’ Italian roots and his ancestors’ courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms, and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.”
Further reading: Behind the pope’s fight for accepting migrants and refugees
In March, the pope had already published an autobiography titled Life: My Story Through History, written with Italian journalist Fabio M. Ragona and published by Harper Collins. In that book, he reflected on his life and provided insights into his pontificate.