The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

When Sonia and Sunny lock eyes on a night train, there's an instant spark—tempered by the awkward memory that their grandparents once tried to arrange their marriage, a gesture that only deepened the distance between them.

Sonia, a hopeful novelist returning to India after years in Vermont, believes she may be cursed—haunted by a spell cast by a seductive artist who once inspired her. Sunny, a weary journalist in New York, is desperate to escape both the weight of his fractured family and the grip of a domineering mother. Both are restless, rootless, and unsure of what the future holds.

Together, they begin a journey through the dissonance of modern life, seeking connection in a world fractured by class, diaspora, generational trauma, and the ghosts of the past.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a sweeping, intimate novel about love, legacy, and the longing for belonging. At once a family saga, a cross-continental romance, and a meditation on identity, it is Kiran Desai’s most expansive and luminous work to date.