Books
PENGUIN TITLE THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY BY KIRAN DESAI SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE
Published in India under Penguin’s Hamish Hamilton imprint in September 2025, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is Desai’s first novel since her beloved bestseller The Inheritance of Loss, which earned her the Booker Prize in 2006 and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Penguin Random House India is thrilled to share that The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, critically-acclaimed novel by the 2006 Booker Prize–winning author Kiran Desai, has been shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize for Fiction. The prestigious shortlist of six titles was announced on 23rd September by the Booker Prize Foundation.
Published in India under Penguin’s Hamish Hamilton imprint in September 2025, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is Desai’s first novel since her beloved bestseller The Inheritance of Loss, which earned her the Booker Prize in 2006 and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
This book follows Sonia and Sunny, two young Indians navigating life between the United States and India, as they confront personal, generational, and societal pressures. Through their intertwined journeys, the novel explores themes of love, family, identity, displacement, class, and the complex bonds that link one generation to the next. It is a sweeping work of ambition and emotional depth, reflecting Desai’s mastery of storytelling and insight into human experience.
This marks another milestone for Penguin at the Booker Prize, following previous wins such as The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997), The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (2006), and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (2022).
Manasi Subramaniam, Editor-in-Chief and Vice-President of Hamish Hamilton, Allen Lane, Viking, Penguin, and Penguin Classics at PRH India, says, ‘On the day of its publication, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny strides into the world and onto the 2025 Booker shortlist. Kiran Desai returns after nearly twenty years with a novel as large as the world, as intimate as a heartbeat: a long story, a love story, a book gestated over nineteen years, written and rewritten, bursting with characters who refuse to remain secondary. It is the kind of book that feels like many books at once, and its arrival is nothing less than a great literary homecoming. It’s been such a privilege to publish it.’
Milee Ashwarya, Publisher and Senior VP, Adult Publishing Group, PRH India, adds, ‘Being shortlisted for the Booker Prize is not just a recognition of a single novel—it is a celebration of the power of storytelling to traverse continents, generations, and hearts. Through this book Kiran Desai reminds us why literature matters and highlights the complexities of love, identity, and belonging in a way that only great fiction can. This recognition reaffirms our commitment to bringing exceptional literature to readers in India and across the world.’
The winner of the 2025 Booker Prize will be announced at the ceremony in London on 10 November 2025.
About the author:
Kiran Desai is the bestselling author of two novels, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss, which won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Born in India, she came to the US when she was sixteen and now lives in New York City.