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Explore membershipsThe Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
A Novel
Narrator
Sneha Mathan
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Length
25 hours 31 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“What a luxury it is to spend so much time living in the world of Kiran Desai's long-awaited third novel. Do not let its length intimidate; you will want every moment you can have seeing life through her words. As Sonia and Sonny’s lives are connected, intersected, diverge, and reemerge, we are engaged with decades of Indian families and their politics, what it means to be an artist, an expat, a son or daughter. From Vermont to Venice, NYC, Mexico and India, there are worlds and time enough to explore in this opus of a book. ”
— Melinda • Bookshop Santa Cruz
Bookseller recommendation
“Booker Prize-winning Desai’s main characters move through a complex interweaving of Indian family traditions, American college life, career and relationship challenges. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny held me as few books have: I wanted our company to leave so I could get back to the gripping story, but I also kept stopping to gawk at her lovely writing or ponder her thought-provoking insights into cross-cultural experience. Reminiscent of A Suitable Boy or The Covenant of Water—this is a great read! ”
— Mary • Drury Lane Books
Bookseller recommendation
“I loved Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, so I was very happy to discover her new one. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the story of two young people who travel between their lives in New York, their native India, and Europe. It is almost 700 pages, but I never tired of the adventures of these modern, star-crossed lovers and their more traditional families. Touted as one of the outstanding books for the fall, this will surely garner an award nomination or two. ”
— Mamie • Quail Ridge Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Love Kiran's storytelling across the continents of 2 very different people. ”
— Nelda • Hidden Nook Booksellers
Bookseller recommendation
“This book is so ambitious, yet intimate. Desai covers enormous ground — both geographically and on family, class, race, and love in its many permutations.”
— Sharon Weinberg • The Chatham Bookstore
Bookseller recommendation
“Loved this book! Well worth the 20-year wait. ”
— Philippa • TYPE Books
Bookseller recommendation
“I loved every minute of this book; delightful, philosophical, romantic and fully feminist! ”
— Philippa • TYPE Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Kiran Desai has written a beautiful, and sensual look at modern relationships between Indian hipsters who carry traditional thinking into their endeavors at understanding the madness that can power and haunt untraditional, and somewhat crazy artisans. ”
— Deb • Blue Dog Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Stunning!”
— Summer • Ladybird Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Absolutely was swept up in this story! Truly one of my favorite books of the year! ”
— Jes • Park Books
Bookseller recommendation
“From the moment Sonia's family decries her wintertime-America loneliness from their crowded flat in Delhi I was by turns charmed, absorbed, and delighted by this novel and felt deeply connected to its characters and beautifully dynamic setting. Desai gets so much right about the cultural dissonance that an immigrant brown child (or, in my case, a brown child of immigrants) experiences between the drive to stake a claim in America and the yearning to be held by the homeland and culture of their origins. And she depicts it all with a warm, humorous touch that often made me laugh aloud and run to the next room to read passages to my husband. I'm looking forward to the audio book.”
— every page gold • The Sparkle Bookstore
Bookseller recommendation
“Loved, loved, loved Kiran's storytelling across the continents of 2 very different people and their life stories. Sometimes my eyes sweated!!”
— Nelda • Hidden Nook Booksellers
Summary
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“A spectacular literary achievement. I wanted to pack a little suitcase and stay inside this book forever.”—Ann Patchett“A novel so wonderful, when I got to the last page, I turned to the first and began again.”—Sandra Cisneros“Devastating, lyrical, and deeply romantic . . . an unmitigated joy to read.”—Khaled Hosseini“A grand and stirring love story, written in exquisite prose.”—Namwali Serpell“Magnificent . . . A masterpiece.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewOne of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 New Books of the Fall • One of Book Riot’s Three Most Anticipated Books of the FallWhen 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 served only 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. She fears that 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.*Includes a downloadable PDF of the family trees in the book
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Audiobook details
Author:
Kiran Desai
Narrator:
Sneha Mathan
ISBN:
9780307933737
Length:
25 hours 31 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Publication date:
September 23, 2025
Edition:
Unabridged
PDF extra:
Available
Libro.fm rank:
#26 Overall
Genre rank:
#22 in Fiction
Reviews
“As entertaining as it is profound.”—The Boston Globe“A dazzling epic . . . immensely entertaining.”—The Guardian
“A sweeping romance.”—Time
“Brilliant doesn’t begin to describe this novel’s profound illuminative powers.”—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“[A] sweeping and beguiling novel.”—The New Yorker
“[A] luscious love story . . . [a] deeply satisfying read.”—Oprah Daily
“A spectacular novel—nearly ‘as abundant as life itself’—to savor, ruminate over, and, yes, even reread.”—NPR
“The family epic you’ve been waiting for. . . . Funny, tender, and gripping.”—Marie Claire
“A sweeping love story touching class, race and history.”—People
“Stunning . . . an epic, according to some early reviewers, ‘immersive’ with its cast of fascinating characters, shifting locales, and a plot that not only is a love story, but also contains elements of a bildungsroman, thriller, and murder mystery.”—Poets & Writers
“This gorgeously written, multilayered novel is a love story of sorts, but it’s arguably more about seeking identity and belonging while navigating two cultures, and intense family ties that both pull and repel.”—AARP
“The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny achieves the ultimate of what a book should do: carry us away into other peoples’ lives, thinking as they think, feeling as they feel, until it comes around and shows us to ourselves. Grand, magnificent, intimate, more than wonderful, this is a novel you will hold close to your heart. I certainly did. I cannot recommend it enough.”—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less
“Beautifully-written, acutely observed, and richly textured, this is a stunning, transformative novel of both epic and intimate proportions.”—Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other, Winner of the Booker Prize
“Kiran Desai reveals the breadth and depth of time, how it weighs on families and nations caught within the drama of history. She captures this with a rare and astute sensitivity that, no matter her subject, casts a light on our present.”—Hisham Matar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Return
“Literary love stories are vanishingly rare these days, and The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is that even more precious thing: a love story that’s also profound, sparkling, funny, exquisitely written, and that teaches us how to live in full-throated exultation for the astonishments of this world. It has so many urgent things to say—about the costs and consolations of art, about power and class and race and freedom—that reading the book feels like a long conversation at night with your most interesting and ardent friend.”—Lauren Groff
“A powerful novel by a writer strong enough to pull back together worlds that are being pulled apart.”—Mohsin Hamid, New York Times bestselling author of Exit West
“What a magnificent achievement, made all the more rare for its compulsive readability. I could not put this book down.”—Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, finalist for the Booker Prize
“This ambitious yet intimate saga is well worth the wait.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A stunner worth savoring.”—Booklist, starred review Expand reviews
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