We just talked live with the author Kiran Desai about her latest novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which took two decades to write and at one point spanned 5,000 pages in drafts, until she began to focus on her subject — global loneliness — through the lens of an unresolved romance. She emerged with one of the best novels in modern memory, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize (which she won for her last novel, The Inheritance of Loss), and is one of those rare novels that seems instantly to belong among the classics. We talked to Desai about:
Why she wanted to take on the phenomenon of “global loneliness”
How loneliness is a gift to the artist and yet the curse many of her characters are trying to escape
The difference between emigrating today and staying in daily phone touch with the old country versus emigrating a generation ago and being cut adrift
Why if you don’t have love, you don’t properly exist; and if you don’t properly exist, you don’t have love
And how she deals with “WhatsApp uncles” telling her — yes, even now — that she can use ChatGPT to improve her writing
It’s a conversation you will not want to miss. Just click on the video player above to watch now.
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We’ll post questions — our discussion guide — every Sunday, and every other Wednesday we’ll meet for a discussion with the Club or a visit from an author or other special guest. Look out for posts with further details. We’ll also host chat threads to get your insight on key questions in advance of our meetings.
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