This was special, an epic exploration of what it feels like to live in modern times.

One of the many themes is the titular loneliness. We tend to think of this as what happens when we either spend too long alone or being surrounded by people by with no one to connect to. This also considers if spending too much time with one person who is entranced by the idea of a person instead of the real person can also be a cause. This could be within families where you permanent bachelors or spinsters due to their relationship with their parents, or through toxic relationships where a man treats girlfriends as essential then disposable. Kiran interestingly considers the impacts of these dynamics on all parties making it much more complex than most novels.

Another theme is how much we are allowed to care varies by power dynamics. Class, race, age and many other lenses are used to show this. Everyone is expected to be aware of 9/11 and the implications of it, but a natural disaster on the Ganges can split past people even if it’s much closer to home and had direct repercussions on their lives. We spend pivotal sections in Goa which we represents the past of the Eastern world as well as Rome representing the past of the Western world and the reactions from the wide cast of characters paint very different views of how important that history is.

We have so much information at our fingertips today we have to sort things into categories to make it manageable but this book pushes back against this idea and refuses to fit neatly into any genre. This could be a romance, a campus novel, a family saga, a novel of ideas, magical realism or many other subcategories but it transcends them all. Who is the creator of art, the artist or the audience and does the distinction matter?

This is also a beautifully written novel and very funny in parts. I expect this to be one of the best books I’ll read this year.