Hope : the autobiography / Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio with Carlo Musso ; translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Pope Francis originally intended this exceptional memoir to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope moved him to make this precious legacy available sooner. Now, the book stands as his testament; the spiritual, faith-filled, as well as moral, social, and civic legacy that he envisioned and left for the benefit of all the men and women of the world.

" Hope vividly recreates the colorful world where the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew up."-- The New York Times

Hope is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis's 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.

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.

Hope includes a wealth of revelations, anecdotes, and illuminating thoughts. It is a thrilling and very human memoir, moving and sometimes funny, which represents the "story of a life" and, at the same time, a touching moral and spiritual testament that will fascinate readers throughout the world and will be Pope Francis's legacy of hope for future generations.

The book is enhanced by remarkable photographs, including private and unpublished material made personally available by Pope Francis himself.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (ix)
• Prologue (3)
• 1 May My Tongue Stick to My Palate (7)
• 2 Too Long Do I Live Among Those Who Hate Peace (15)
• 3 The Gifts of a Healthy Restlessness (32)
• 4 Almost at the End of the Earth (42)
• 5 The More, the Merrier (53)
• 6 Like a Stretched Cord (68)
• 7 Playing Over the Whole of His Earth (78)
• 8 Life and the Art of Encounter (86)
• 9 The Day Went Fast as an Arrow (94)
• 10 They Recognized Each Other from Afar (102)
• 11 Like the Branch of the Almond Tree (109)
• 12 They Feed upon My People as They Feed upon Bread (116)
• 13 No One Can Save Themself Alone (131)
• 14 Resounding with the Deepest Vibrations (142)
• 15 The Only Way to Become Fully Human (153)
• 16 Like a Child in Its Mother's Arms (164)
• 17 That You May Remember and Be Ashamed (182)
• 18 All Out and All in (196)
• 19 Walking through Valleys of the Shadow of Death (208)
• 20 Your Rod and Your Staff, They Comfort Me (220)
• 21 The Scandal of Peace (234)
• 22 Hand in Hand with a Steadfast Child (247)
• 23 In the Image of a God Who Smiles (258)
• 24 For the Best Days Are Still to Come (268)
• 25 I Am Just One Step (285)
• A Brief Note By the Co-Author (293)
• Sources (295)
• Text Credits (299)
• Photograph Credits (301)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Personal story of Pope Francis. Pope Francis'Life: My Story Through History(2024) acted as a basic set of memoirs, but this newest work is a more in-depth look at the life of the pontiff. Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, dives deep into his family story, memories of his youth, years of struggle and conflict in Argentina as a church leader, and finally his role as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Readers will find this autobiography replete with intriguing and sometimes surprising and even disturbing stories from the pope's life. Francis' worldview was shaped by a concern for the poor and the displaced; his father was an Italian immigrant, and his mother was also of Italian descent. He references war as the great evil and tragedy of humankind, returning to the theme again and again. Francis does not hide his own mistakes or peccadilloes, nor does he boast of his own accomplishments. His is a modest and humble story, centered less on himself than on the myriad of people he has encountered through the decades. This includes many people who have suffered, through political oppression, warfare, disease, and more. This makes Francis' life story quite moving at times. Nevertheless, the work has a choppy feel, both in diction and in organization. The pope tends to wander from one topic to another and often writes in pithy, moralistic declarations. Toward the end, he veers off from autobiography to his views on humanity and life itself. He upholds the book's title with this statement: "For we Christians, the future has a name and this name is hope." Hope is indeed another recurring theme, even in the midst of the world's evil and dysfunction, which he has seen firsthand. Though unevenly written, Francis' work is honest, interesting, and of historic value. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.