A magnum opus – 26 September 2025

I read a 700-page novel so that I can insist you should too. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai is so good that it is a struggle to emerge. Like Sonia’s mother, one wants to remain in its pages: ‘When Dickens is better than your life, then why live your life?’ she wonders. (Sonia has a ready answer though it goes unuttered.)   

From Vermont where she is studying, Sonia calls her parents crying. She is lonely. Her family in India, never physically alone, do not empathise. But they do scheme: perhaps, her grandfather thinks, she should be introduced to the grandson of a friend of his, a friend who owes him. He has been waiting for the moment to capitalise on this.

In New York, Sunny, living with the American girlfriend of whom his family are unaware, receives a letter from his mother passing on and mocking the proposal of marriage. Nothing comes of it.

But, in time, the two will meet. And your heart will soar and your limbs will ache and you’ll probably burn your hand because you were trying to make tea whilst reading for how on earth could you look up from a story so rich in family warring, birds singing, crumbling grandeur, the scent and taste of exquisite foods, the horror of relationships unfulfilled due to things unsaid and the allure of characters striving for art or life or both, if those are different?

The novel is huge in scope – politics and history, caste and race, literature and beauty are all explored – and spans continents and generations. Yet this is often through zooming in on the minute: the touch of a cheek, the reach for a lucky charm, the frustrated intake of breath.

Writing to her son, Sunny’s widowed mother thinks, ‘You could always find a person to converse with over the larger matters – a government scandal, the delayed monsoon – but it was the tiny concerns, the moment’s observations, that you couldn’t save up to tell, for you didn’t even recognize their full potential to add meaning to life unless you articulated their humor [sic], tragedy, menace, or charm.’

Humour, tragedy, menace and charm abound and I cannot wait for you to read it.

To accompany Sonia and Sunny, all 886g of them, and on exploring history, nations, politics and literature through individual stories:

The History Lessons by Shalina Patel is a fascinating book, racing through many of the topics which you may once have learnt about at school and many of those which were glaringly absent whilst asking how we teach history, how a curriculum should change and grow and leaving one with the urge to read further about the Ivory Bangle Lady and Queen Nanny of the Maroons, among others.

Night Watch by Kevin Young is a poetry collection inspired by people, birds and poetry itself. There are anonymous stories such as the witness to a soldier saluting with what remains of his arm, historic voices such as those of Millie-Christine McCoy, conjoined twins, two people entwined in one body and able to sing in harmony for each other, and a wild mixture of discordant voices in Dante’s hell.    

Feminist History for Every Day of the Year by Kate Mosse is the antidote to loneliness, a book designed to be shared among people of every age. You can read the appropriate entry for each day – this morning you’ll learn about Wangarĩ Maathai, the first woman to become a professor in Kenya and the first woman from Africa to win a Nobel Prize – or you can dip in as you please, pick a day that is special to you, delve into the index to check how many Bessie Smith references there are… or Taylor Swift, if you are so inclined. The women one meets are not all likeable or people one should emulate but their stories are captivating.

This is a brilliant companion piece for David Olusoga’s Black History for Every Day of the Year, one of his many books which we will be stacking high at an event with David at St George’s on Monday. Our events are all listed on the website. Between book groups, author talks, poetry readings and gigs, you’ll find me reading under the table, never lonely as long as I have Desai and Dickens.

May your weekend be full of the moment’s observations that give life humour and charm,
Lizzie