‘What is going on in India and the US got me interested in writing about nationalism’: Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai has earned the reputation of a recluse for stepping away from the literary limelight for nearly two decades between her Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss (2006) and her most recent title, shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to watch her interacting warmly with readers at the Kerala Literature Festival on Kozhikode beach. She looked radiant as she signed dozens of copies, joined conversations, and posed for selfies, leaving every fan delighted.

Before we sat down for an interview, she popped into the festival bookstore and asked a few people what they were reading. One of them said that he was intimidated by the size of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Instead of rolling her eyes, she smiled indulgently and said, “I’ll write a shorter one next time.”

Desai wears her fame lightly, happy to slip into the crowd. “That’s a nice bag! Where did you get it?” she asked me, just as I began to record this conversation. My large tote had caught her attention thanks to the watermelon motifs adorning it. “I bought it in Jaipur. It’s in solidarity with Palestine,” I said. “Obviously, you know this already, don’t you?”

She smiled and said, “Yes, I do.”

I got the feeling that I was in the presence of someone who was here to use her voice in the service of humanity rather than simply promote her new book, ensure sales, and leave. I took this as a sign to continue talking about the genocide in Gaza, a topic that most literary elites in India are reluctant to discuss publicly. Excerpts from the conversation:

Immigration is a major theme in The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. With the current political dispensation in the US and its policies on immigration, what was it like for you to write this novel?
It was fascinating because, though my book is set a little bit in the past, I was trying to discover what made us get to the point where we are now. The US has changed drastically since the last time I published a novel. India too has been seeing similar changes for a long while. What is going on in both these countries got me interested in writing about nationalism.

Trying to understand how the heart works, and how the mind changes, is something that artists and writers can do, and perhaps journalists and historians cannot. The same people who believed one thing a while ago are now saying something completely different. You enter a living room, and find that the conversation is different from what it used to be. People feel free to say certain things now. But did they believe them before, and simply not articulate them? Or are they actually thinking very differently now from how they used to think? Sometimes, these people are close friends, and then you are surprised by a sort of amnesia that has taken over.

You talk about something and you sense a kind of vagueness in people’s responses. Sometimes, there is a clear refusal to engage. These things really interest me. But in terms of what's happening currently in the United States, I think it has been a huge shock for the Indian community there because there was this feeling of Indians somehow being seen as favoured immigrants. And now, suddenly, there is a realisation that, no, actually, that is not the case.

As someone who grew up in India and now lives in the US, how do you feel about American citizens who migrated from India, actively colluding with Donald Trump?
Any surprises there? There are many people who fit this description but I wish it were not so. This is a community that has often sent money to India to support the creation of a new kind of India that is being promoted now, while, at the same time, enjoying a secular democracy in the US that is accepting of minorities. The changing narrative under Donald Trump is very disconcerting for people like them but I think that it is a very necessary corrective too.

You mentioned that modernity and education do not necessarily save women from being in abusive relationships. Why is that so? Why do so many women find it so difficult to get out of abusive relationships?
I think the assumption is that if you are an educated woman, you are not going to be in an abusive relationship. Yet the truth is that we live in a world of enormous power divides. That includes gender divides, race divides, class divides, and all kinds of privilege divides. These divides make it possible for abuse to take root. That has not changed with modernity and education, in the personal sphere and the political sphere. This is a world where enormous abuse is taking place in homes and in the world outside the home. With characters like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as political leaders, look at the kind of power abuse going on in war zones. Think of how immensely vulnerable women, religious minorities, and LGBTQ people are.

What was it like to write a love story at a time when so many people are losing faith in love, exhausted by dating apps that require a highly stylised curation of the self?
Everybody wants to have a love story, and that makes them want to read a love story. I think that hasn’t gone away because emotions are the same, even if the technology is new. I am going to disagree with you. People may have lost faith in dating apps, but not in love.

I am on the same page as you, rooting for love in life and in fiction. But I am trying to play devil’s advocate here. What do you make, for instance, of the fact that couples now celebrate one-month anniversaries when they have been together for a whole month?
My gosh, really? I am so out of touch. I don’t know this world. You better write about it.

What advice would you give young or emerging writers?
Be selfish about your work. Learn to say No. Protect your time and space.

What is the role of kindness in the creative life? Have there been moments when you were consumed by self-doubt, and had peers or mentors pull you out of that zone?
Yes, definitely. There is a diasporic community in the US. We do lift each other up. I don’t feel like naming people because they are my friends. Over the years I have been writing, it has felt wonderful to have camaraderie, especially with other authors who take a long while to work on their books, or those whose books are large and sprawling.

But I must also tell you that writers are not necessarily kind people. Art is beyond good and evil, and kindness and cruelty. There are people of all sorts. But the authors who help others are lovely. As a young author, I was helped. So, I help young authors when time allows me to. We must do what we can.

I was wondering how to broach the topic but I am so glad you brought it up earlier. How do you feel about public figures being asked to take a stand on the Palestine issue?
I think they should. I mean, we are all citizens with a voice, so we must speak. A lot of people like to say, “I am apolitical!” How can you be apolitical in this world? My stance is clear.

A lot of writers, translators and publishers in the United States got together and mobilised their peers to push PEN America to take a stand. What is your position on this?
I am really glad they did. I signed the letter that many writers signed to draw more attention to the issue and try to address it publicly. I participated in PEN meetings because I am a PEN member, so I played just a little part in the whole conversation. But I am very grateful that some of the authors pushed hard. And that actually made PEN America change their stance. This is a good development, but I don’t think that even their new stance is strong enough. The deeper issue is that those who are taking a stand have to figure out how to speak up against the news.

The American news media is so biased that it is quite clear how little Palestinian perspective is out there. And so, it becomes extremely important for organisations that fight for writers’ rights to speak up. One feels so pathetic putting up one’s little hand and saying “human rights”, and yet, it is absolutely important that we do it again and again and again.

At times, literature festivals are financially supported by various embassies or consulates, and there is some underlying political agenda accompanying the funding. When you accept an invitation to speak at a festival, do you take into account the sponsorship?
It is unfortunate but I think that very often writers are not even aware of where the funding is coming from, especially if they are going to a literature festival that is in another country. This is partly because literature festivals are often not very transparent about their sponsorship.

Sometimes you go to places and then hear really disconcerting stories come out about things that you were not even aware of. The question that you are asking me is a very difficult one. Writers would have to do an enormous amount of homework on festivals around the world if they wanted to know about sponsorship. One thing that I think writers have to do is not compromise on what they are saying. We have to go out and say exactly what we think.

What are your thoughts on the academic and cultural boycott of Israel? Do you endorse it, or do you feel that it is better to sit together and have a conversation with people who think quite differently from you, even in ways that might offend and disgust you?
I do feel that there should be free speech. But we also have to acknowledge that there cannot be free speech for those who are destroying free speech. People who say that we should bring everyone to the table often don’t take this into account. If the people you are talking to are responsible for suppressing other persons, you may not want to be on stage with them. I, for one, would certainly not want to share a stage with such people. But again, this tends to get really hard. You are not always aware of who you are speaking to and how they think. As a writer, if you spend 20 years in isolation, you are a bit naive about how the book world actually works.

Thank you for being so forthcoming about your thoughts. It really matters when someone whose voice holds so much weight speaks about things that are not directly connected with their book.

Also read

The first reading of Kiran Desai’s new novel shows loneliness is cultural and systemic

‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’ is a mapping of displacement and desire

Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist, educator, and literary critic. He can be reached @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.