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Kiran Desai longlisted for 2025 Booker Prize
India-born Desai is known for referencing themes that resonate with the Indian diaspora in her work.
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Malvika Choudhary - Tue, 29, Jul 2025
- 16:38 EDT
- 29
Kiran Desai / americanacademy.de
Indian author Kiran Desai has been longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize for her new diasporic novel The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, her first book in nearly 19 years.
Desai, who won the prize in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss, is the only previous winner on this year’s list. If selected again, she would become only the fifth author to win the prize twice. Her mother, Anita Desai, was shortlisted three times.
Also Read: Kiran Desai to make comeback with new novel in September 2025
Published by Hamish Hamilton, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny follows the lives of two Indians—Sonia, a writer who returns to India from Vermont, and Sunny, a journalist living in New York. At 667 pages, the novel is the longest among the 2025 longlisted entries. It is scheduled for release on September 23.
The Booker panel described the book as “vast and immersive,” combining a love story with social commentary and fable-like elements. The novel addresses themes of migration, memory, class, identity, and the aftershocks of global conflict.
Born in New Delhi and educated in India, the UK, and the US, Desi is known for addressing diaspora themes in her work. Her debut novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998. Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss, won both the Booker Prize and the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award in 2006. Since then, she has largely remained out of the spotlight, and her return has drawn international attention.
The longlist, announced on July 29, features 13 titles selected from 153 submissions. The shortlist of six books will be announced on Sept. 17. The winner, who will receive £50,000 (approximately $64,500), will be named in London on Nov. 11.
The longlist was selected by a panel chaired by Irish writer Roddy Doyle. The jury also includes novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, actor and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, literary critic Chris Power, and author Kiley Reid.
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