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Notes on solitude: Author Kiran Desai reflects on 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'

WBUR
Published October 12, 2026 at 12:04 PM EDT
The cover of "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" and author Kiran Desai. (Courtesy of Hogarth and Michael Sharkey)
Courtesy of Hogarth and Michael Sharkey
The cover of "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" and author Kiran Desai. (Courtesy of Hogarth and Michael Sharkey)

“The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” Kiran Desai‘s 2025 novel, is a sprawling, multi-generational family saga that plays out across four continents in the late 1990s.

At heart, it is the love story of two young Indian writers, both struggling with isolation and social dislocation, who are inexorably drawn back together, even as family and geography conspire to pull them apart.

Along the way, Desai explores themes of alienation, class and cultural hierarchy, and the lives we inherit versus those we make for ourselves.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks with Desai about her epic second novel and the power of solitude.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR
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Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

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All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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