New Delhi, Sept. 7 -- At 688 pages, Kiran Desai's new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, demands serious commitment from the reader-and it's not difficult to give it. Almost 20 years in the making, it is Desai's most ambitious book so far. Its richly imaginative world, accomplished craft, and immersive storytelling outshine her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Booker Prize in 2006, as well as her critically acclaimed debut, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, winner of the Betty Trask Award in 1998.

Sonia and Sunny, which is already on this year's Booker longlist, tells a sprawling story, both geographically and thematically. It unfolds across multiple generations, several cities in the US, India, Italy and Mexico...