Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

by Shehan Karunatilaka

Overview

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet gay, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time when scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts who cluster around him can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka. Ten years after his prizewinning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka's foremost authors, Karunatilaka is back with a rip-roaring epic, full of mordant wit and disturbing truths.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143459675
Publisher:	Penguin Random House India
Publication date:	09/26/2022
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Shehan Karunatilaka was born in Galle, Sri Lanka. He grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. He emerged on the world literary stage in 2011 when he won the Commonwealth Prize, the DSL and Gratiaen Prize for his debut novel, Chinaman. Karunatilaka is considered one of Sri Lanka's foremost authors. In addition to novels, he has written rock songs, screenplays and travel stories, publishing in Rolling Stone, Gentleman's Quarterly and National Geographic.

Editorial Reviews

What the judges particularly admired and enjoyed in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was the ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques. — The 2022 Booker Prize

From the Publisher

"This book is difficult to categorise. With ghosts and spirits in the afterlife, it is part supernatural. But it also gives you a thorough grounding in Sri Lankan politics. And as the narrative gathers pace it becomes a whodunnit. The result is a thrilling read."

BBC - Rebecca Jones

"There can’t be many novels that simultaneously bring to mind Agatha Christie, Salman Rushdie, Raymond Chandler, John le Carré and Stranger Things—but this one does... Karunatilaka respects the conventions of all the genres that he piles up so extravagantly... The result is an unexpectedly exhilarating read."

Times [UK] - James Walton

"A mix of mischievous magic realism and absurdist humour... [A] wild, uncategorisable [novel]."

Telegraph - Claire Allfree

"The most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade... Amid the dryness, satire and weary lamentations on the state of Sri Lanka there is genuine heart to this novel."

New European Review - Charlie Connelly

"Comic, macabre, angry and thumpingly alive... [Maali’s voice] has bite, brilliance, and sparkle... Still, the furious comedy in Mr. Karunatilaka’s novel never courts despair."

Economist

"The obvious literary comparisons are with the magical realism of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. But the novel also recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls or Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita... Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history."

Guardian - Tomiwa Owolade

This year’s Booker Prize novel is also one of its most compelling audiobooks. Set in a violent phase of Sri Lanka’s recent history, the story is often grim—but also deliciously ingenious and suspenseful. The narrator, recently murdered, addresses himself as “you,” reconstructing a storyline in which the afterlife exists simultaneously with the living world and the victim tracks down his own killer. Actor and musician Shivantha Wijesinha is the novel’s voice brought to life, an immensely talented new audiobook performer who evokes a range of Sri Lankan characters with subtlety and vigor that match the author’s own. Wijesinha is a natural who takes in the narrative whole while losing himself to it entirely, and this remarkable novel is also a remarkable debut. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile

This year’s Booker Prize novel is also one of its most compelling audiobooks. Set in a violent phase of Sri Lanka’s recent history, the story is often grim—but also deliciously ingenious and suspenseful. The narrator, recently murdered, addresses himself as “you,” reconstructing a storyline in which the afterlife exists simultaneously with the living world and the victim tracks down his own killer. Actor and musician Shivantha Wijesinha is the novel’s voice brought to life, an immensely talented new audiobook performer who evokes a range of Sri Lankan characters with subtlety and vigor that match the author’s own. Wijesinha is a natural who takes in the narrative whole while losing himself to it entirely, and this remarkable novel is also a remarkable debut. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile