> Zed Book Club / Sophie Grégoire Trudeau to Publish Two Books Related to Mental Health and Wellness With Penguin Random House Canada
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, seen here in Mexico City in January, has long been a proponent for mental health and wellness. Photo: Claudio Cruz/AFP/Getty Images
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Sophie Grégoire Trudeau to Publish Two Books Related to Mental Health and Wellness With Penguin Random House Canada
The upcoming releases include a wellness book for adults and a picture book for children, which will roll out over the next two years. / BY Mike Crisolago / May 18th, 2023
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is getting into the publishing game with two new books over the next two years.
Penguin Random House Canada announced the upcoming books — one for adults and one for children — on Thursday morning, with each sharing a focus on a theme close to the 48-year-old’s heart: mental health and wellness.
“Partnering with Penguin Random House Canada on these two books is a unique opportunity for me to share some insights, tools, and stories that can help readers better understand their emotions and the internal hardships they face in their daily lives,” Grégoire Trudeau said in a statement accompanying the news. “In revealing parts of my own mental health well-being journey, it’s my sincere hope that it will shed light on our profound connections with ourselves and all human beings.”
The first book, which drops in spring 2024, is a wellness book for adults called Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other.
Drawing on “exclusive interviews with top psychologists, scientists and thought leaders,” as well as personal stories of Grégoire Trudeau’s own mental health journey, the book will delve into “the importance of acceptance, compassion, empowerment and self-knowledge for better emotional literacy and for our individual and collective mental health,” according to the publisher.
Closer Together will be published in French by KO Éditions.
The second offering from Grégoire Trudeau is a children’s picture book that will hit shelves in 2025. Published by the PRHC children’s division Tundra Book Group, the picture book “encourage[s] kids to move, explore and be as connected to the great outdoors as they are to their inner emotional landscape.”
“I’ve long admired Sophie for her work as an engaged and passionate advocate for mental, emotional and physical health and a champion for gender equality,” Penguin Random House CEO Kristin Cochrane said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting and expanding Sophie’s incredibly important work in these areas and we are honoured to be in partnership to ensure Closer Together reaches the widest possible readership.”
Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has been candid about her mental health struggles in the past, including battles with anxiety and eating disorders. Her work has included serving as the first national volunteer for the Canadian Mental Health Association and supporting various non-profit and charitable endeavours, as well as publicly sharing details of her mental health journey during Mental Health Awareness Week earlier this month.
“To suffer in isolation is to convince yourself that there’s nobody out there who would relate to what you’re feeling or who hasn’t been through it,” she told Curiocity. “There are always allies out there and the minute you take that baby step of vulnerability, that point of discomfort where you can’t really see beyond the darkness, you take that leap and that leap could change the rest of your life.”