The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Twenty years of silence may seem like an eternity in the publishing world. Kiran Desai breaks that silence with "The Solitude of Sonia and Sunny", a sprawling novel published in Italy by Adelphi, two decades after winning the Booker Prize for "The Inheritance of Defeat". The daughter of the writer Anita Desai – herself a Booker Prize finalist on several occasions without ever winning – Desai belongs to that generation of English-language Indian authors who have explored globalisation through the experience of the diaspora, making uprooting the defining existential condition of their characters. Sonia and Sunny are no exception: children of the Indian upper middle class, expats by choice rather than necessity, who, having both moved from India to the United States, pursue their own paths to fulfilment. She is in Vermont, where she dreams of becoming a writer; he is in New York, an intern at the Associated Press. Their families are planning an arranged marriage, in keeping with a tradition still widespread in the circles from which they come, but only a chance encounter on a night train in India will truly bring them together, marking the beginning of a troubled relationship destined to unfold amidst a constant cycle of coming together and drifting apart. Surrounding them is a constellation of unforgettable characters – grandparents, parents, domestic staff, artists and immigrants – who continually broaden the perspective, offering the reader a sweeping portrait that weaves together, on various levels, the story of three generations, post-colonial India, America’s world of skilled immigration, and the timeless theme of thwarted love. Their story, in fact, will serve as the starting point for a true epic which, by broadening its scope, will explore the ‘loneliness’ of the title by focusing on a sense of belonging to a world in which one’s roots seem to be growing ever more fragile. In an era dominated by narrative fragmentation and autofiction, "The Solitude of Sonia and Sunny" demonstrates that the nineteenth-century-style ‘great novel’ is still very much alive and well, and remains perfectly capable of portraying complexity without sacrificing psychological depth or historical breadth. Desai reaffirms her remarkable ability to weave together personal and collective history, crafting an ambitious work in which the story of two young expatriates becomes, through a choral narrative, a reflection of an entire society increasingly in disarray. Without a doubt, one of the most significant literary comebacks of recent years.

    

Kiran Desai
, "The Solitude of Sonia and Sunny
", Adelphi, 762 pp., 25 euros