The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida: Winner of the Booker Prize 2022

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WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022

Now with added author content - a Map of Colombo as viewed from the afterlife + Dramatis Personae

A magical realism whodunnit set amid Sri Lanka's civil war

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 serene Beira lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time 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 try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka's foremost author delivers a rip-roaring epic, full of mordant wit and disturbing truths.

'Recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Gogol and Bulgakov.' - Guardian
'Outstanding... the most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade.' - New European

Reviews

'Fizzes with energy, imagery and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars.' - The Booker judges

'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

'Brilliant ... rollicking ... a pleasure to read. Karunatilaka writes with tinder-dry wit and an unfaltering ear for prose cadences.' - Kate McLoughlin

'Outstanding ... the most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade' - New European

'An exuberant whodunnit ...There can't be many novels that simultaneously bring to mind Agatha Christie, Salman Rushdie and John le Carre - but this one does' - The Times

Author Bio

Shehan Karunatilaka is the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. His debut novel, Chinaman (2011) won the Commonwealth Book Prize and Gratiaen Prize. Born in Sri Lanka, he studied in New Zealand and has lived in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. He currently lives in Colombo with his family, his guitars and his notes for new stories.