The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

The rave reviews from bookseller friends convinced me to pick up this new release despite its hefty 688-page length. It's a family saga and love story featuring two characters that had me rooting for them from beginning to end. Sonia dreams of being a novelist—but after a disastrous college love affair with an older man left her feeling desolate and haunted, she returns to India to try and recover her sense of safety. Sunny also left India for the U.S., seeking to become a successful journalist, and first sees Sonia on an overnight train while back in India visiting his family. The two feel pulled towards each other, and though their initial embarrassment about their families having once tried to matchmake them nearly derails their young love, it takes root and grows. But for them to find happiness, they must navigate their meddling families and somehow break the curse of Sonia's ex-lover. I read that Desai spent twenty years on this novel and it's no wonder—I found it to be a sad, sprawling, and wistful tale of two young people seeking to make sense of their families, the world, and who they can be to each other.