Jan 28

Jan 28 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Author: Shehan Karunatilaka
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

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.

TL;DR Review

Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a Sri Lankan ghost story, war story, and just all-around good story.

For you if: You like books where the main character’s voice is strong and distinctive.

Full Review

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida won this year’s Booker Prize, so I was excited to read it. I didn’t quite know what to expect, and I think that almost made the experience even better. Shehan Karunatilaka’s storytelling skill is on full display in this clever and hard-hitting novel.

The main character is, of course, Maali Almeida, who tells us his business card would read “photographer, gambler, slut.” It’s 1990 in Colombo, deep into the Sri Lankan civil war. At the beginning, he “wakes up” to find that he’s dead, his body floating in a lake, and has seven moons before he needs to go to “the light.” First, of course, unfinished business: returning to his best friend and boyfriend to guide them to his hidden war photographs so that the terrible things he’s seen don’t die with him.

One distinctive thing about this book is that it’s told in second person, but don’t let you put that off. It feels extremely natural, maybe even inevitable, with the story. I’d say it actually makes you feel even more directly inside Maali’s head, and he’s a really fun narrator. He’s actually kind of a terrible person, but funny and ultimately likable (or at least sympathetic). Something else to know: While Maali’s queerness is extremely central to the plot of the book, this book doesn’t necessarily make any kind of statement about queerness; in fact, Karunatilaka has said he modeled Maali after a real-life closeted gay photographer, so that was just always part of his character, which I found interesting.

The arc Karunatilaka creates for Maali’s character, weaving in Sri Lankan folklore and a look at war atrocities along the way, was super engaging and I thought mostly well done. The only part I wasn’t 100% convinced by was the very very end, but I won’t spoil that. Still, it was a small enough factor that it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the book overall.

If you like books with strong main characters, and that mix humor with really heavy topics, pick this one up.