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The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

from $12.80
Hardcover:

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR… ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR… ONE OF PEOPLE’S TOP 5 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLIST

KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Economist, Harper’s Bazaar, The Globe and Mail, BBC, New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, Elle, Library Journal, Libby, Chicago Public Library, Lit Hub

LONGLISTED FOR THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD • A LIBBY BOOK AWARD NOMINEE • ONE OF BOOKPAGE’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Sonia, an aspiring writer who studied abroad in Vermont, returns to India haunted by the shadow of a family curse she can't quite shake. Sunny, a struggling journalist scraping by in New York, is trying to put distance between himself and a mother he can't save.

From Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss, comes a sweeping, decade-spanning love story and family saga. As Sonia and Sunny's paths cross and diverge, Desai explores how country, class, race, and history shape the people we become.

Lavish and often very funny, this is a novel about the particular loneliness of living between two worlds—and the fragile hope of finding someone who understands it. The Boston Globe called it "a novel that will last."

A masterwork nearly two decades in the making, this is literary fiction at its most ambitious and its most human.

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR… ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR… ONE OF PEOPLE’S TOP 5 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLIST

KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Economist, Harper’s Bazaar, The Globe and Mail, BBC, New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, Elle, Library Journal, Libby, Chicago Public Library, Lit Hub

LONGLISTED FOR THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD • A LIBBY BOOK AWARD NOMINEE • ONE OF BOOKPAGE’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Sonia, an aspiring writer who studied abroad in Vermont, returns to India haunted by the shadow of a family curse she can't quite shake. Sunny, a struggling journalist scraping by in New York, is trying to put distance between himself and a mother he can't save.

From Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss, comes a sweeping, decade-spanning love story and family saga. As Sonia and Sunny's paths cross and diverge, Desai explores how country, class, race, and history shape the people we become.

Lavish and often very funny, this is a novel about the particular loneliness of living between two worlds—and the fragile hope of finding someone who understands it. The Boston Globe called it "a novel that will last."

A masterwork nearly two decades in the making, this is literary fiction at its most ambitious and its most human.

  • Publisher: Hogarth

    Title: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

    Author: Kiran Desai

    On Sale Date: September 23, 2025

    ISBN 13: 9780307700155

    ISBN 10: 0307700151

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $32.00

    BISAC: Fiction / Literary Fiction

    Page Count: 688 pages

    Dimensions: 5-3/16 x 8 inches

  • Kiran Desai is the bestselling author of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; born in India, she moved to the United States at sixteen and now lives in New York City.

  • Readers are calling it transcendent, lavish, and wise:

    • Early readers describe The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny as a once-in-a-generation family saga.

    • Fans say Sonia and Sunny's story stayed with them long after the final page.

    • Reviewers praise Desai's ability to be funny and devastating in the same paragraph.

    • Readers highlight the novel's honest portrayal of what it means to live between two cultures.

This book is for you if

  • You love sweeping, multigenerational family sagas.

  • You want literary fiction with real heart and real humor.

  • You're drawn to love stories that unfold across continents and years.

  • You appreciated The Inheritance of Loss and want more from Kiran Desai.

  • You're looking for one of the most acclaimed novels of the year.

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