Kiran Desai — The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel - with Aminatta Forna
Kiran Desai presents *The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny*, an expansive novel about two young people whose lives converge and separate across India, the United States, and several generations. When Sonia and Sunny meet on an overnight train, they discover that their grandparents once attempted to arrange a marriage between them—an intervention that initially pushed them apart. Their eventual search for happiness unfolds amid questions of family, class, race, history, tradition, modernity, and the alienation of contemporary life.
Sonia is an aspiring novelist returning to her family in India after studying in Vermont, while Sunny is a struggling journalist living in New York and trying to escape his domineering mother and a violent family conflict. Their story combines a love story, family saga, and meditation on the forces that shape individual lives. Desai will discuss the novel with Aminatta Forna, author, essayist, memoirist, and director of Georgetown University’s Lannan Center.
When: Saturday, September 26, 2026
Showtimes: 6:00 p.m.
Tickets: Free admission, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Venue: Politics and Prose at Union Market, 1324 4th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002
Featured author: Kiran Desai is the author of *Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard* and *The Inheritance of Loss*, which received the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Born in India, she moved to the United States at age sixteen and lives in New York City.
Conversation partner: Aminatta Forna is a novelist, memoirist, and essayist whose books include *Happiness*, *The Hired Man*, *The Memory of Love*, and *Ancestor Stones*. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was appointed an OBE in 2017, and is researching a book about the ecology, history, and nature of the East African Rift System.
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask accessibility questions, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. Requests made closer to the event will be accommodated when possible.
Related book: *The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel* is available as a $21 paperback, published September 8, 2026.