Kiran Desai's first novel in 19 years earns spot on Booker Prize 2025 longlist
Published by Hamish Hamilton, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a sprawling novel that traces the parallel journeys of two Indian protagonists—one in New York, the other recently returned to India—as they grapple with personal history, family, and identity in a changing world. At over 650 pages, it is the longest book on this year's list of 13 novels, selected from over 150 submissions. The book will be released on September 23, 2025.
Desai is the only previous Booker winner on this year's longlist Should she win this year, she would become only the fifth double winner in the prize's 56-year history, joining Peter Carey, JM Coetzee, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel. Born in New Delhi, Desai was educated in India, England and the United States, and currently lives in New York. Her mother, Anita Desai, was shortlisted for the Booker three times.
Desai's third book has been long in the making. Her debut novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998), was translated into more than 22 languages and widely acclaimed. Her second, The Inheritance of Loss (2006), won the Booker Prize in 2006, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which is yet to be published, is described by her publisher as a globe-spanning love story and generational family saga that 'mines questions of memory, language, identity and belonging.'
It spans continents and decades, tracing the lives of two young Indians whose paths cross and diverge in unexpected ways. The story opens with a fleeting encounter on an overnight train, where Sonia and Sunny—once the subjects of a failed matchmaking attempt by their grandparents—are drawn to each other yet remain emotionally guarded.
Sonia, recently returned to India after studying in Vermont, is struggling to find direction as a novelist. Her journey is shadowed by a past relationship with a charismatic artist, whose influence she fears still lingers over her life like a curse. Sunny, meanwhile, has settled in New York, working as a journalist while distancing himself from his domineering mother and the lingering violence of his extended family.
As the novel unfolds, Desai explores the characters' parallel efforts to construct lives of meaning amid the dislocation and uncertainty of the modern world. Through Sonia and Sunny's fragmented connection, she examines themes of migration, class, generational conflict, and the emotional costs of globalization.
Calling Desai's novel as 'vast and immersive,' the Booker Prize 2025 judging panel said, 'This novel about a pair of young Indians in America becomes one about westernised Indians rediscovering their country, and in some ways a novel about the Indian novel's place in the world.'
'The book enfolds a magical realist fable within a social novel within a love story. We loved the way in which no detail, large or small, seems to escape Desai's attention. Every character (in a huge cast) feels fully realised, and the writing moves with consummate fluency between an array of modes: philosophical, comic, earnest, emotional, and uncanny.'
Desai joins 12 other authors on this year's longlist, which represents a broad international mix. Authors come from or have roots in India, Malaysia, Ukraine, Trinidad and Tobago, Albania, Hungary, the UK, the US and Canada. The list includes two debuts: Endling by Maria Reva and Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga.
This year's panel is chaired by Irish author and 1993 Booker winner Roddy Doyle, alongside Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Chris Power, Kiley Reid, and Sarah Jessica Parker. 'There are short novels and some very long ones,' Doyle said. 'Some of them examine the past and others poke at our shaky present. They are all alive with great characters and narrative surprises.'
📌 Love Forms by Claire Adam (Faber)
📌 The South by Tash Aw (4th Estate)
📌 Universality by Natasha Brown (Faber)
📌 One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
📌 Flashlight by Susan Choi (Jonathan Cape)
📌 The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton)
📌 Audition by Katie Kitamura (Fern Press)
📌 The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits (Faber)
📌 The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre)
📌 Endling by Maria Reva (Virago/Little, Brown)
📌 Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape)
📌 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking)
📌 Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (Daunt Books Originals)
Alongside Desai, three other authors on the list have previously been nominated for the Booker: Tash Aw (longlisted in 2005 and 2013), Andrew Miller (shortlisted in 2001), and David Szalay (shortlisted in 2016). The remaining nine authors have been nominated for the Booker for the first time, though many are award-winners in other contexts. Claire Adam, for instance, won the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2019; Natasha Brown received a Betty Trask Award in 2022; and Maria Reva was awarded the Kobzar Literary Award in Canada for her earlier short fiction.
Penguin Random House dominates the longlist, with five books across four imprints, including Jonathan Cape, Viking, Fern Press and Hamish Hamilton. Independent presses have also made a strong showing: Faber & Faber has three nominations, and Fitzcarraldo Editions, Daunt Books Originals, and Sceptre round out the list.
Fitzcarraldo's inclusion marks its first appearance on the main Booker Prize longlist, despite regular success on the International Booker Prize circuit.
The Booker Prize 2025 shortlist will be announced on 17 September, with the winner revealed at a ceremony in London on 11 November. The winning author will receive £50,000 (Rs 50 lakhs)
£2,500 (2.5 lakhs) awarded to each shortlisted writer.
Aishwarya Khosla is a journalist currently serving as Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express. Her writings examine the interplay of culture, identity, and politics.
She began her career at the Hindustan Times, where she covered books, theatre, culture, and the Punjabi diaspora. Her editorial expertise spans the Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab and Online desks.
She was the recipient of the The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections, where she studied political campaigns, policy research, political strategy and communications for a year.
She pens The Indian Express newsletter, Meanwhile, Back Home.
Write to her at aishwaryakhosla.ak@gmail.com or aishwarya.khosla@indianexpress.com. You can follow her on Instagram: @ink_and_ideology, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read More
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