The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny

 

Sonia and Sunny are both Indian but living in the United States on a visa.  Sunny is working as an entry level journalist and living with an American woman.  Sonia falls in love with an older artist who uses his art to control and ultimately, degrade her.  She loses her job in a gallery after the affair breaks up and must return to India where she is adrift, not sure what direction her life should take next.

When Sunny returns home for a visit, the two meet and there is a spark but Sonny is attached.  When he returns to the United States and finds his girlfriend gone, the spark between the two becomes more serious.  Sonia goes to Goa to research an article and Sunny joins her there.  

But Sonia cannot get a visa to return to the United States and Sunny does not want to live in India where his controlling mother will try to run his life.  Their romance takes them next to Venice but while there they discover an exhibit by the artist who was involved with Sonia and when she sees the pictures he has painted of her, she is humiliated and flees back to India.  Sunny returns to the United States where he gets his green card and then moves to Mexico on a grant to study the culture there.  Will the two get together?

Kiran Desai is an Indian author who immigrated to the United States when she was sixteen.  Her novel The Inheritance Of Loss won the Booker Prize and this novel was also nominated for that award.  I loved this novel.  It is a sprawling book that introduces the reader to different versions of India, that of wealthy and poor inhabitants.  The culture and family expectations are finely drawn and readers will cheer on the love affair between Sonia and Sunny.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.