The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Sonia leaves Allahabad for an American MFA program; Sunny leaves Delhi for an American job he is not sure he wants. The two meet, lose touch, and meet again across 20 years and five countries, while Desai braids the long histories of their families, the marriages their parents and grandparents endured, and the diaspora-Indian life that produced both of them. The book moves between Allahabad, Delhi, New York, Mexico, and Goa across 700 pages, building a generational portrait of the post-1980s Indian-American experience and the people inside it who can never quite arrive.

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Ann Patchett

Author and bookseller

DEC 2025

It is a sweeping epic about two young people who are both from the same small town in India.

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