Pope's new book bound to be another bestseller

Pope John Paul has written an "autobiographical reflection" on the last 50 years of his life, a new book the Vatican and Italy's largest publishing house said yesterday was bound to be another world bestseller.

The new 200-page book, to be published by Italy's Mondadori and released on the Pope's 84th birthday on May 18, is called Get up. Let us go!

The title is taken from some of Christ's last words to his apostles the night before he died. But Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said it would be wrong to see the work as a last testament from the Pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease.

"It is more of a call to action, like saying 'there is much work to be done'," Prof. Navarro-Valls said at a presentation with Mondadori executives.

The Catholic leader's first book for mass circulation, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, has sold more than 20 million copies in 50 editions around the world since it was published in 1994, also by Mondadori.

Mondadori, which has the worldwide rights, declined to give financial details of the accord but said they expected the new book to be as successful.

The Pope is already the most prolific pontiff in history, having penned dozens of encyclicals, essays and messages to the world's Catholics. Last year he returned to one of his early loves and published a new book of poetry.

The Vatican said that, as with all papal writings, he will give his royalties to charities and development projects.

They said the book, some 40 short chapters which the Pope wrote last spring and summer, is an "autobiographical reflection" on his life since about 1958, when he became bishop of the southern Polish city of Krakow.

"It is a book of memories and reflections with autobiographical reflections," Prof. Navarro-Valls said, adding that it was "an easy read... full of freshness, vitality and humour," aimed at inspiring the largest number of readers.

The first printing run in Italian was expected to be about 280,000 copies.

Mondadori, in which the holding company of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's family has a controlling stake, said it hoped deals with other publishing houses would be done in time to have it ready in several other languages by May 18.