New Democrat MP Olivia Chow writing a memoir to be published in early 2014

TORONTO – New Democrat MP Olivia Chow is writing a memoir.

HarperCollins Canada says the wife of late federal NDP leader Jack Layton will tell for the first time in the book “the many stories that make up her private and public life.”

Chow was 13 when her middle-class family moved from Hong Kong to Toronto, where her parents grew frustrated with the job opportunities available to them.

After studying fine art and philosophy at university, Chow became a school trustee and Toronto city councillor.

She met Layton in the early 1980s and the two were married from ’88 until his death in 2011.

HarperCollinsCanada says the memoir will be published early next year.

“My story is like so many Canadians. It’s a story of challenges and loss but also the story of finding my home in a country and community that has given me so much,” Chow said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“My journey has convinced me that each of us has the power to make a difference, and that by sharing our stories, we learn, we heal and we focus our dreams.”