Kiran Desai Won A Booker Prize In 2006; 19 Years Later, She Is On The Shortlist Again

Indian-origin writer Kiran Desai's 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' is on the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist. It follows the love story of two Indian youngsters, aspiring novelist Sonia and struggling journalist Sunny, who navigate life and society together in the United States. The coming-of-age saga traces the themes of class, race, history, and complicated intergenerational bonds. "I think only a novel can get at the raw truth regarding what people are privately thinking and negotiating," Desai told Penguin Random House.

This book is Desai's first published work in almost two decades. The Booker jury described it as "the most ambitious and accomplished work yet." Desai also won a Booker in 2006 for her novel, 'The Inheritance of Loss'. 

Kiran Desai On Booker Prize Shortlist

According to Booker, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the tale of two Indians in the United States, who first meet on an overnight train and are immediately captivated. "Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world."

Speaking to Penguin, Desai said, "Using the comic lens of an endlessly unresolved romance between two modern Indians, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny examines Western and Eastern notions and manifestations of love and solitude as they play out across the geographical and emotional terrain of today’s globalised world."

The book is reportedly expected on September 25.

Who is Kiran Desai?

Delhi-born writer Kiran Desai is the daughter of acclaimed writer Anita Desai. She spent her formative years in Punjab and Mumbai, and later moved to the United Kingdom, where she lived with her mother. She later moved to the United States. Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, published in 1998, earned massive praise.

Her 2006 book The Inheritance of Loss won the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. Then 35 years old, she became the youngest-ever woman to win the Booker Prize at the age of 35. The book, set in the Himalayas, explores themes of identity and culture clash, as well as the impact of colonialism. 

In 2008, Desai joined the Gates Foundation to report on a community of sex workers in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh. In 2009, her alma mater, Columbia University, honoured her with a Medal for Excellence. 

Booker Prize Shortlist

Alongside Desai, Susan Choi (Flashlight), Katie Kitamura (Audition), Ben Markovits (The Rest of Our Lives), Andrew Miller (The Land in Winter), and David Szalay (Flesh), have been selected for the Booker Prize 2025.

The winner will be announced November 10, and they will receive £50,000 ($67,600).