The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
AuthorKiran Desai
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHogarth
Publication date
2025
Publication placeUnited States
Pages688
AwardsBooker Prize (shortlisted)
ISBN9780307700155

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a 2025 novel by Kiran Desai. With the narrative taking place mostly between 1996 and 2002, the novel tells the story of Sonia and Sunny, both Indian, one a student in Vermont, and the other a recent graduate from Columbia planning to immigrate to the United States, whose families are long acquainted before they first encounter one another on a train in India. The meeting leads to an extended romance between the two young characters through the thrum and churn of the post colonial world.

The novel was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. The judges described the novel as an epic of love and family, spanning generations and countries, that is the most "ambitious and accomplished" work by Desai.