Kiran Desai returns to the 2025 Booker shortlist after 19 years with The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Nineteen years after winning the Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai is back on the list for her newest novel
Author Kiran Desai is back in the literary spotlight, shortlisted for the Booker Prize for the first time in 19 years. Her latest novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, has been described by the judges as a “vast and immersive” tale exploring the lives of two young Indians navigating love and life in America.
This will be her second time on the stage since the 53-year-old Delhi-born author first won the prestigious Booker in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss. Joining six writers from across the globe on this year’s coveted shortlist, Desai’s newest work stands out as her longest novel yet, clocking in at 667 pages and published by Hamish Hamilton.
“An intimate and expansive epic about two people finding a pathway to love and each other. Rich in meditations about class, race and nationhood, this book has it all,” the judges remarked about Desai’s latest masterpiece.
About The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Spanning nearly two decades of writing, the novel follows Sonia, a homesick college student and aspiring writer in the snowy mountains of Vermont, and Sunny, a struggling journalist from Delhi navigating life in Brooklyn. As both characters wrestle with loneliness, cultural dislocation, and the complexities of human connection, their extended families in India try to intervene — only complicating their path to love.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is not just a love story. It’s a sweeping family saga that examines the forces of country, class, race, history, and the intricate bonds linking one generation to the next. For Desai, it is arguably her most ambitious and accomplished work yet.
If she wins this year, Kiran Desai would join an elite group as the fifth double winner in the Booker Prize’s 56-year history. India would also achieve an unprecedented clean sweep of 2025’s literary accolades, following the International Booker Prize win by author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for Heart Lamp earlier this year.
Others on the shortlist
Other authors competing for the 2025 Booker include Susan Choi (Flashlight), Katie Kitamura (Audition), Ben Markovits (The Rest of Our Lives), Hungarian-British author David Szalay (Flesh), and Andrew Miller (The Land in Winter). The winner will be announced on November 10 at Old Billingsgate in London, receiving GBP 50,000, while each shortlisted author will take home GBP 2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.
