RAJI WRITES

“Cut. If not, shorten.” Anita Desai wrote these words in the margins of an early draft of her daughter Kiran Desai’s latest book,  The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny  (Hogarth, Sept 2025.) This was after the author had cut down a staggering 5000-page manuscript to a still-hefty 1000. Yet, at 688 pages, the published version is still too long, in this reader’s opinion.  Desai discussed the book, which has been shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, at a Sept. 21 event at  Keple

The Henna Artist was released just when the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown began, and author Alka Joshi's book events switched to a virtual...