Sonny and Sonia are Indian students in the US. She's at a small Vermont college, and he's in New York City. Loneliness is a new thing for them, coming from a country where people are in your face all. the. time, whether they are strangers or members of the family. Sunny has a white girlfriend, a smart, appealing woman whose Kansas family welcomes Sunny. Ulla knows that he has never told his family about her, which is why when he comes back from an Indian visit, she has left him with no word. Now Sunny enters the world where he is alone, and finds that he doesn't seem to be able to connect with people like he did just a few years ago. Sonia has only connected with her library supervisor at a school where the weather and the terrible food have her calling home crying that she is lonely. Her parents are bewildered, but have their own troubles. A friend of her father recommends a possible match with a friend's son, also in the US, You've guessed who those two young people are, but you won't guess how badly it goes between the families in India as well as Sunny and Sonia, who at this point have never met each other. Sonia finds herself on a dangerous, destructive path, while Sonny returns to India with his one friend to help him choose a bride.

Set in the 1990's, Kiran Desai opens the story to include both Sonia and Sunny's families, offering a vision of middle class people between Partition and 9/11, their struggles with insane corruption, changing mores, and juddering real estate. It's all so absorbing that you will happily spend nearly 700 pages there and may even wish for a few more.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a digital review copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny evokes an immediate sense of profound human connection and the bittersweet ache of navigating life's vast complexities. One anticipates a journey with Sonia and Sunny that will stir deep empathy, as their personal search for happiness unfolds against the backdrop of powerful, often overwhelming, global and familial forces.
The novel promises to resonate on a deeply personal level, making readers reflect on their own experiences with love, the weight of heritage, and the challenge of forging an identity between cultures or across generations. The 'loneliness' in the title isn't just a state; it feels like an invitation to explore the universal human yearning for belonging and understanding in a world that frequently fosters isolation.