New romance books – 2026

Reading lists

New romance books to read in 2026

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 
 
A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss 
 
When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. 
 
Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring 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. 
 
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny 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. 
 
BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 ACCORDING TO NEW STATESMAN, I PAPER, BBC, GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, THE NEW YORK TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, THE TIMES, ECONOMIST, OBSERVER 
 
‘I wanted to pack a little suitcase and stay inside this book forever’ Ann Patchett 
 
'Profound, sparkling, funny, exquisitely written, [The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny] teaches us how to live in full-throated exultation for the astonishments of this world’ Lauren Groff

Kiran Desai’s long-awaited third novel is an utter triumph . . . it’s one of the strongest contenders on this year’s Booker longlist . . . Sentence by sentence, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny makes for blissful reading . . . Desai has managed some literary alchemy. On the surface, she has written a believable but still cute will-they-won’t-they romance . . . but she also incorporates elements of magical realism . . . and through all that, Desai uses the struggle of her two writer protagonists to acknowledge, embrace and then undercut various tropes and cliches that Western readers have come to expect from her, and her compatriots

A novel of stunning scope and ambition . . . Remarkable, refreshing, insistently hopeful . . . Desai’s great gift is texture. Her writing gives even minor characters a sense of history and gravity. Her people never feel invented; they seem observed . . . There’s a capaciousness, a sense that the private dilemmas of two young Indians in New York refract global histories. At a time of distracted fractured reading, Desai returns to the novel’s oldest and still most radical ambition: to make the complexity of other humans lives sharable . . . Her prose is luxurious and sensual; each item of food and shift in the quality of light is noted with such tenderness that is becomes something life affirming . . . a novel of tremendous scope and emotional richness; absorbing, poignant, funny and, above all, deeply humane

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny has the feel, and at nearly 700 pages, the size, of a multigenerational epic. For all the book’s great scope, though, no detail is too granular to escape Desai’s notice. Through the love story of its two main characters, Indians torn between America and home, the book explores and enacts the tension between two paths for Indian fiction, social realism and magical realism, and fuses them to original and enthralling effect

A love story, surrealist mystery, study of identity and feat of metafiction . . . The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny more than earns its buzz . . . It’s a starburst of a novel, dazzling and unforgettable . . . At nearly 700 pages, it is a long book but one that allows for the kind of intense, sumptuous immersion that can feel for the reader like being under a spell . . . Desai’s novel strives to capture nothing less than the fullness of human existence – its paradoxes, eccentricities and wonders – and at its most ambitious, the abyssal, often inexpressible devastation wrought by the loss of self . . . A love story spanning years of hurdles also demands an ending worthy of its journey. Desai delivers spectacularly

An exploration of the shadow-lines of the migrant experience crafted in a mélange of realism, surrealism, comedy and mysticism. The scene shifts are fast and funny; the mood shifts poignant and precarious. The eponymous lovers only meet halfway through the novel, but Desai’s timing is perfect. These world-weary protagonists must first work through their privileged cosmopolitanism before they discover, in Desai’s wisdom, that the cure for loneliness isn’t company; it is empathy. This is one for the ages

A sprawling epic love story that has consumed her life for two decades . . . far and away Desai’s most ambitious novel . . . it spans continents and unearths decades of family history, exploring the effects of globalization, the legacy of colonialism and partition in India, and the slippery, transmutable nature of identity

A dazzling epic . . . this capacious story of love, work and family set between India and the US is both dizzyingly vast and insistently miniature . . . immensely entertaining

An epic romance . . . a consistently surprising saga jam-packed with incident . . . amongst it all, Desai finds time for nuanced send-ups of everything from the self-importance of a ritzy literary gala in New York to the machinations of the Indian marriage market, as well as poignant rumination on migrant experience

A transcendent triumph . . . not so much a novel as a marvel. [It is] among those most rarefied books: better company than real-life people

Desai's [novel] is so much more than a love story, exploring themes of race, class, American individualism, modern - day alienation, toxic entanglements and the fraught but fundamental need to forge connection. Steadily accruing emotional heft, it's entertaining, surprising, profound, and moving. Magnificent

It demands patient engagement and offers generous rewards in return . . . this oceanic novel . . . the tides of history run alongside the currents of chance and fate that shape the lives of Sonia and Sunny . . . The writing moves fluently between distinctive voices, fusing a minutely observed realism with swirling undercurrent of magical thinking . . . The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny overspills boundaries because it addresses an impossibly huge subject. Like India itself, it refuses to be contained within modest expectations

Kiran Desai’s third novel is a gorgeous, transporting fiction . . . in her vast novel of lost souls, no one is mediocre or left behind

A vast canvas worked with precision; full of gorgeous nature writing and rueful human comedy, exploring where to find one’s centre in a globalised world, and how to write a novel that incorporates eastern and western traditions

Desai's long-awaited, 680-page return asks for patience – and rewards it richly. It's a slow-burn love story of Sonia and Sunny, told across continents and decades, but also an epic novel about family, class, art and destiny . . . It confirms Desai as one of the most ambitious writers working today

This novel is grand in sweep yet satisfyingly intimate

A wonderfully sprawling story about family, about emigration, about fate and superstition, about India and its struggle to reconcile its ancient heritage with its role as a 21st-century powerhouse

Immersive and gently funny . . . Desai’s novel is an intricate portrait of an interconnected world

Desai’s epic, Booker-longlisted love story wears its profundity lightly, blending bold ideas and intimate drama to sparkling effect

A richly detailed, twisty saga with the grand feel of classical literature . . . The lovers and their families must contend with all manner of powerful forces: cultural alienation, distrust between nations, corruption and sexual violence. But there are some laughs here and there

The former Booker winner was one of the bookies’ favourites to win again this year for her shortlisted tale of thwarted love between two young Indians in the US. Desai amplifies the experiences of Sonia Shah and Sunny Bhatia to tell a vast story of migration, family, belonging, and the loneliness that can stem from our attempts to respond to the expectations of others

Financial Times, 'Books of the Year 2025: Fiction'

A beautiful and often hilarious satire of youth, artistic ambition and the immigrant dream

The Telegraph, 'The greatest books of 2025'

Like the richest 19th-century fiction, this nearly 700-page family saga had our critic Alexandra Jacobs swooning: “Crowded but never claustrophobic,” she wrote, and “better company than real-life people.” A tentative romance between the title characters, immigrants from India caught between obligation and self-expression, is the throughline. Skittering between nations and generations from the late 1990s to just after 9/11, Desai stirs in scheming heirs, coveted recipes, a missing amulet and the art monster from hell

The New York Times, 'The 10 Best Books of 2025'

The story follows Sonia Shah and Sunny Bhatia . . . Their romance unfolds over the following years, circling ideas of colonialism, belonging, work, ambition and familial estrangement. Desai adds to this a rich tangle of subplots that give the reader the feeling of having lived many lives

A twisty, funny, maximalist love story with the feel of classic literature

Literary love stories are vanishingly rare these days, and The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is that even more precious thing: a love story that's also profound, sparkling, funny, exquisitely written, and that teaches us how to live in full-throated exultation for the astonishments of this world. It has so many urgent things to say—about the costs and consolations of art, about power and class and race and freedom—that reading the book feels like a long conversation at night with your most interesting and ardent friend

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a spectacular literary achievement. I wanted to pack a little suitcase and stay inside this book forever

I had been dying to read a gorgeously written, sweeping novel like this. Desai’s tale—devastating, lyrical, and deeply romantic—grapples with the complexities of artistic ambition, migration, loss, love, and confronts a central question: What does it mean to belong? How does one reach ever toward the future when haunted by the past? This poignant novel—rich with culture, heartbreak, and hope—was an unmitigated joy to read

Kiran Desai reveals the breadth and depth of time, how it weighs on families and nations caught within the drama of history. She captures this with a rare and astute sensitivity that, no matter her subject, casts a light on our present

A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas

A magisterial achievement . . . Desai’s prose is meditative but the book is alive with detail . . . a sprawling work of social portraiture stuffed with allusions to Dikens, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

A powerful novel by a writer strong enough to pull back together worlds that are being pulled apart

A grand and stirring love story, written in exquisite prose . . . [a] sheer delight!

An epic and compulsive love story. This complex exploration of familial ties, class and history is beautifully crafted

A masterpiece . . . Desai’s trust in her own process pays off, as vignettes of just a page or two intersect with the novel’s central obsessions—love, family, writing, the role of the U.S. in the Indian imagination, the dangers faced by a woman on her own—and come to a perfectly satisfying close . . . magnificent

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny achieves the ultimate of what a book should do: carry us away into other peoples’ lives, thinking as they think, feeling as they feel, until it comes around and shows us to ourselves. Grand, magnificent, intimate, more than wonderful, this is a novel you will hold close to your heart. I certainly did. I cannot recommend it enough

A sweeping romance that spans decades and continents . . . epic

[A] luscious love story . . . [a] deeply satisfying read

A novel from Kiran Desai is always going to be an event, but The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny will be seismic, trust me. Brilliant doesn’t begin to describe this novel’s profound illuminative powers

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is both epic and intimate. This is a story of two young people, and a story of families and belonging. That Kiran Desai also finds a way to deftly thread unflinching questions about the imagination and creativity through these immersive pages is brilliant evidence of her formidable and incomparable gifts as a writer. What a magnificent achievement, made all the more rare for its compulsive readability. I could not put this book down

A novel so wonderful, when I got to the last page, I turned to the first and began again

Kiran Desai’s first novel for twenty years, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, gave me a great pleasure

Australian Book Review, '2025 Books of the Year'

A sweeping page-turner, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a kind of Romeo and Juliet story for a modern, globalized age

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.

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. 
 
Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring 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. 
 
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny 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.

Kiran Desai

Marvellous . . . Kiran Desai romanticises neither home nor elsewhere . . . Heeds not only the brave new world, but also the country left behind

Affecting and endearing, full of laughter and tears

Seldom has an author offered so fearless a glimpse into how ordinary lives are caught up in the collision of modernity and cultural tradition, and in the schisms and fanaticism that all too often ensue

If book reviews just cut to the chase, this one would simply read: This is a terrific novel! Read it!

20th Anniversary Edition

High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion, home to three people, each dreaming of another time. 
 
The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphaned granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, despite their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook’s heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home. 
 
Around the house swirl the forces of revolution and change. Civil unrest is making itself felt, stirring up inner conflicts as powerful as those dividing the community, pitting the past against the present, nationalism against love, a small place against the troubles of a big world.

Kiran Desai

Praise for The Inheritance of Loss

Marvellous . . . Kiran Desai romanticises neither home nor elsewhere . . . Heeds not only the brave new world, but also the country left behind

Affecting and endearing, full of laughter and tears

Seldom has an author offered so fearless a glimpse into how ordinary lives are caught up in the collision of modernity and cultural tradition, and in the schisms and fanaticism that all too often ensue

Marvellous . . . Kiran Desai romanticises neither home nor elsewhere . . . Heeds not only the brave new world, but also the country left behind

Affecting and endearing, full of laughter and tears

Seldom has an author offered so fearless a glimpse into how ordinary lives are caught up in the collision of modernity and cultural tradition, and in the schisms and fanaticism that all too often ensue

Marvellous . . . Kiran Desai romanticises neither home nor elsewhere . . . Heeds not only the brave new world, but also the country left behind

Affecting and endearing, full of laughter and tears

Seldom has an author offered so fearless a glimpse into how ordinary lives are caught up in the collision of modernity and cultural tradition, and in the schisms and fanaticism that all too often ensue

Books by Kiran Desai

Articles featuring Kiran Desai

New romance books to read in 2026

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