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20 in stock
A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years-an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss
When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.
Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives- country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 688
Imprint: Hamish Hamilton UK
Publication date: 30/09/2025
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sonny
By Kiran Desai
Review by Marija
Set at the turn of the millennium, this story revolves around two young Indians - Sonia, a student of literature in the last year of her degree in Vermont, and an aspiring writer; and Sunny, a journalist with the AP in New York. The themes woven through are those of love, immigration, identity, family ties, and societal values across continents. It is tragicomic in the sense of a comedy of errors with Sonia’s morally upstanding, sophisticated and traditional family pitted against Sunny’s corrupt and desperately socially climbing relatives, while exposing the vanity of both sides.
At nearly 700 pages, it is a large book, but with writing like Desai’s, it only intensifies the complete immersion that pulls you under like a spell.
As with all epic books of this breadth, the greatest challenge is keeping the separate threads while achieving the unity of storylines and maintaining the depth of the characters. To my delight, Desai delivers with aplomb.
For readers of Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Rohinton Mistry
