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Book review: Sweeping romance in Kiran Desai's 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'

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ABS-CBN Lifestyle

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1780459266978poster.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="Kiran Desai (right), author of &quot;The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.&quot; Penguin Random House/© M. Sharkey"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Kiran Desai (right), author of &quot;The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.&quot;<em> Penguin Random House/© M. Sharkey </em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,&quot; one of Barack Obama&#x27;s favorite reads, is Kiran Desai&#x27;s follow up to &quot;The Inheritance of Loss,&quot; the 2006 Booker Prize winner.</p><p>A great book sweeps you up into other people&#x27;s lives and leaves you seeing the world – and yourself – differently. In &quot;The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny&quot; (Penguin Random House, 2025, 670 pages), award-winning author Kiran Desai brings us into the lives of 2 twenty-something Indians living in the United States: Sonia, an aspiring novelist haunted by an abusive relationship with an older man, and Sunny, a journalist struggling to escape his domineering mother and corruption-tainted family. </p><p>On their first meeting, Sonia and Sunny are embarrassed by their grandparents&#x27; past attempts at an arranged marriage between them. The attraction is strong, however, and they start a secret relationship. They travel to many places to be together, but past trauma and the uncertainty of their future together haunt them. They experience alienation in both their inner and public lives which bonds and separates them at the same time.</p><p>Through Desai&#x27;s lush prose and keen insight, we feel Sonia and Sunny&#x27;s alienation and come to understand the intricate cultural background that frames it. </p><p>Of Indians who were educated to be Westernized, Sonia&#x27;s father says: &quot;Eventually you begin to wonder who you should have become instead of the person you are.&quot; And from Sunny: &quot;Until you get a Green Card, and sometimes even after that, you don&#x27;t feel certain that you are where and who you&#x27;re meant to be.&quot; </p><p>It&#x27;s these themes of immigration and identity that would make the novel resonate, particularly with Filipino-Americans.</p><p>&quot;A rich novel of ideas&quot; is a very accurate description included on the dust jacket. The sheer abundance of ideas and insights, and the vivid narratives of life in India and the US, threaten to overshadow the plot and overwhelm the reader. </p><p>But Desai sustains – and places trust in – her readers&#x27; interest.  She rewards them with thoughts on a number of complex questions: What does it mean to belong? How much do we really owe our parents? How can one move forward in life when haunted by the past? </p><p>As laudable as the prose is the cast, Desai has highly memorable supporting characters including Sonia&#x27;s stubborn parents, Sonia&#x27;s long-suffering aunt, Sunny&#x27;s jovial best friend who favors arranged marriages, and Sunny&#x27;s slyly machinating mother – all of whom, despite their flaws, care deeply for Sonia and Sunny. It&#x27;s love that helps Sonia regain her sense of self after her abusive relationship. It&#x27;s love that helps Sunny understand who he really is. </p><p>Desai makes the case for love as the only antidote to alienation – a necessary condition for existence, even. Her closing argument: &quot;If you don&#x27;t have love, you don&#x27;t properly exist. If you don&#x27;t properly exist, you don’t have love.&quot; </p><p>&quot;The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny&quot; is, above all, a love story. And of well-written books about love, there can never be enough. </p><div><em>&quot;The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny&quot; is available at Fully Booked.</em></div><div><strong>ABOUT THE AUTHOR</strong></div><p>Vanessa Bicomong is a marketing teacher and consultant who has been writing book reviews since 2021. She is the program director for customer centricity at Acumen Strategy Consultants and general manager of The Learning Library, an online tutorial center offering reading comprehension and writing classes in English and Filipino.</p>

<p>"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," one of Barack Obama's favorite reads, is Kiran Desai’s follow up to "The Inheritance of Loss," the 2006 Booker Prize winner.</p>

"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," one of Barack Obama's favorite reads, is Kiran Desai’s follow up to "The Inheritance of Loss," the 2006 Booker Prize winner.

Book review: Sweeping romance in Kiran Desai's 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'

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Book review: Sweeping romance in Kiran Desai's 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'

ABS-CBN Lifestyle,

Vanessa Bicomong

Published June 03, 2026 12:01 PM PHT

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