{"id":151149,"date":"2025-08-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=151149"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:05:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:05:04","slug":"square-books-presents-kiran-desai-for-the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sonny-tuesday-september-23-2025-at-530-pm-off-square-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/square-books-presents-kiran-desai-for-the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sonny-tuesday-september-23-2025-at-530-pm-off-square-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Square Books Presents Kiran Desai for “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 5:30 pm @ Off Square Books\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Square Books<\/strong> is delighted to be hosting an event for the Booker Prize winning author Kiran Desai<\/strong> on September 23, 2025, for her new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is especially meaningful to have her here on the publication date of her first novel in nearly twenty years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were fortunate to welcome her to Oxford<\/strong> with her debut, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard<\/em>, and have long admired her work. Desai\u2019s last novel, The Inheritance of Loss<\/em>, won the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 2006. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny <\/em>has been longlisted for the Booker Prize this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny <\/em>is a stunning achievement – a sweeping tale which stretches over decades and continents following two young Indian writers whose star-crossed relationship with one another unfolds over the years as the tides of race, class and history push them apart and force <\/p>\n\n\n\n

them back together.. At once intimate and expansive, it’s a love story, a family saga and an unforgettable journey.\u201d \u2013 Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A spectacular literary achievement. I wanted to pack a little suitcase and stay inside this book forever.” \u2013Ann Patchett <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Desai’s artful prose is subtle even when pitched on a grand scale. . . . This ambitious yet intimate saga is well worth the wait.” \u2013Publishers Weekly, starred review <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the book <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an\u00a0overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also\u00a0embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had\u00a0once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that\u00a0served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her\u00a0studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned\u00a0to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a\u00a0dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned\u00a0for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling\u00a0journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee\u00a0his imperious mother and the violence of his warring\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny <\/em>is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the author <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kiran Desai is the bestselling author of the novels Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard <\/em>and The Inheritance of Loss, <\/em>which won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Born in India, she came to the United States when she was sixteen and now lives in New York City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
By Kiran Desai\u00a0
$32.00\u00a0
Publisher: Hogarth\u00a0
ISBN: 9780307700155\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Square Books is delighted to be hosting an event for the Booker Prize winning author Kiran Desai on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":151150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2239],"tags":[32412,5,4,602],"class_list":["post-151149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-literary-events","tag-kiran-desai","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-square-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/KiranDesai-for-TheLonelinessofSoniaandSonny.jpg?fit=1300%2C731&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151149"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151891,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151149\/revisions\/151891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}