The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
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4.3 • 101 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An Instant National Bestseller • One of the New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2022 • An NPR Book We Loved in 2022 • Named a Best Fiction Book of 2022 by the Washington Post, Times (UK), Financial Times, and The Guardian.
Winner of the 2022 Booker Prize, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a searing satire set amid the mayhem of the Sri Lankan civil war.
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka.
Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire” (Economist) and rip-roaring state-of-the-nation epic that offers equal parts mordant wit and disturbing, profound truths.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A man attempts to solve his own murder in this Booker Prize–winning work of literary fiction. In 1990, during Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, the young, gay photojournalist Maali wakes up…and realizes he’s dead. He’s now on a mission to find out what happened to him, but he only has seven nights to navigate the surprisingly bureaucratic and understaffed afterlife before he’ll forget everything and proceed toward “The Light.” Laced with political and social satire, Maali’s quest is told entirely in second person, adding to the otherworldly vibe. Author Shehan Karunatilaka’s expansive writing expertly blends grim humor with the upsetting brutalities of war. Fans of the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez and Haruki Murakami will love this absurd, humorous, and endearingly poignant novel.
Customer Reviews
Creative
Interesting satire about dysfunctional Sri Lankan warring factions and social life narrated from beyond the grave. The mystery keeps you going, but the political statement tends to get lost in the supernatural. High marks for creativity, but didn’t think it deserved the Booker. Prefer Glory for its exuberance or even Small things like these for its simplicity.
Disorienting but Transformative
This book was confusing and hard to follow at first, which I think is intentional — we experience Maali’s disorientation right along with him. My ADHD makes it hard to get into books anyway, so the unusual timeline and magical realism were an extra challenge. What really speaks to the writing here is the way the author managed to make me feel both disoriented and yet too intrigued to give up.
The story balanced horror with Maali’s sharp humor and kept circling back to complicity — the quiet ways people survive by looking away or keeping secrets. I was really moved by the ongoing tension between trying to fix things and letting go. Both feel human and understandable, and that tension is the heart of the book.
Reading this also gave me a glimpse of what life looks like in places where violence is constant. I don’t pretend to understand it fully, but the novel made me think about how people keep living, grieving, joking, and loving in the middle of war. I really appreciate that perspective.
My not-so-inner vegan self really needs to comment on the appearance of animals in the book and the author’s treatment of them. I don’t want to get too carried away with that, but I loved that bit of the book.
In the end, this book really resonated with me in more ways than I think I can verbalize. It was difficult, messy, funny at times, and ultimately transformative.
From a Sri Lankan
Very enlightening and entertaining. Coming from a Sri Lankan kid who saw the turmoil around her not knowing what it meant. Thanks for writing this book