The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

by Shehan Karunatilaka

Paperback, 2022

Call number

FIC KAR

Collections

Fiction, New Fiction

Genres

General Fiction

Fantasy

Publication

W. W. Norton & Company (2022), 400 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. An Instant National Bestseller 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.… (more)

Media reviews

The Guardian (UK)

A photographer in the afterlife sets out to expose the carnage of Sri Lanka’s civil wars in a Booker-nominated novel filled with humour and pathos....The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, returns to 1980s Sri Lanka, and similarly has a debauched protagonist. Maali, the son of a Sinhalese father and a

burgher mother, is an itinerant photographer who loves his trusted Nikon camera; a gambler in high-stakes poker; a gay man and an atheist. And at the start of the novel, he wakes up dead....The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is written in the second person, which gives the narrative a slightly distancing effect, but it’s compensated for by the sardonic humour....The scenarios are often absurd – dead bodies bicker with each other – but executed with a humour and pathos that ground the reader. Beneath the literary flourishes is a true and terrifying reality: the carnage of Sri Lanka’s civil wars. Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Castlelass

Set in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1989, the ghost of war photographer Maali Almeida finds himself in a liminal place called the In Between. He has seven days (“moons”) to figure out who killed him and why, He must also decide whether to proceed into The Light or remain forever in the In Between. A

ghost called Sena is trying to influence him to join his group in the In Between so they can take revenge on their killers. A demon called the Mahakali is out to devour as many souls as possible. All this is told in an entertaining manner, using grim humor to balance the darker content.

It works on so many levels. On the surface, it is an entertaining mystery and can easily be read as a quasi-detective novel. It also works as an indictment of the abuse of power by dictators and their minions, historical commentary on the multiple factions involved in the Sri Lankan civil war, and reflections on what it means to be human. It is one of the few novels that effectively uses the second person point of view.

I was familiar with this period in Sri Lankan history from my prior reading; however, I do not think this familiarity is necessary to enjoy it. Karunatilaka does an excellent job of providing the background the reader needs. It is a wild ride, and I loved every minute. This book gets one of my rare 5 stars and I am adding it to my list of favorites.

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LibraryThing member Steve38

A worthy Booker winner I'd say. The ghost world of Sri Lanka brought to life. Illustrating the violence and corruption in a majority Buddhist country. Buddhism that teaches peace and meditation yet has bred violent nationalism and fed into an awful civil war. The author does not spare us

descriptions of consequences of murders and assasinations yet it is all done in a cynical, flip language that takes us into the realm of Ghostbusters rather than gothic noir. The only problem? Even in Sri Lanka's spiritual purgatory alls well that ends well. Not really.

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LibraryThing member alexrichman

Delighted to see this win the Booker. Like many I started out a little unsure, but it slowly wrapped its tentacles around me and by the end I was completely immersed in both the corporeal and spectral worlds. Not for the faint-hearted but definitely rewards those who persevere.

LibraryThing member kayanelson

I can understand why this won the Booker Prize but I didn’t care for it. It seems like Sri Lanka was full of corruption and there was a lot violence. This book captures that well but I found the book was too wordy for me and filled with unnecessary description and verbiage.

LibraryThing member viviennestrauss

This took me a little more than 7 moons to finish- what a wild ride of a book, I don't even know what I would compare it to. I admit to being completely ignorant of the decades long civil war in Sri Lanka or really anything about the country. There were a lot of characters to keep up with in this

novel, both living and dead, human and non-human but worth it in the end.

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LibraryThing member booklove2

Here we have the Purgatory entry for the 2023 Morning News Tournament of Books! Also winner of the 2022 Booker Prize. I think it won, not only because it is a book from a place that is usually not written about (Sri Lanka), but it's definitely a story that might not be put in front of Western eyes.

In American high school history classes, the history is pivoted to whatever involved America (hopefully kids are being taught better now?) So of course I am ignorant of the history of Sri Lanka -- most of the violent atrocities here seem quite nonsensical -- but thinking more broadly, when doesn't any violence between groups seem pointless in any country? To see a book written from someone born in Sri Lanka is a nice change of perspective, and there is much to learn about Sri Lanka here. I can appreciate that this isn't a typical murder mystery, as the book begins when the main character's spirit lands in a purgatory situation, and he doesn't remember what caused his own death. There is quite the number of suspects, as Maali is a photographer who does not take sides in all of the multi-sided Sri Lankan violence. He has "seven moons" to find out what happened, and also try to make a difference with his photography evidence, while traveling on the winds and whispers of his name. It does remind me a lot of 'Lincoln in the Bardo' by George Saunders, another purgatory situation which seems to have the same, ahem, spirit of what these souls might be dealing with in the In Between. I appreciate that the writer does mention Saunders, and acknowledge those influences. If it was a traditional murder mystery, I am usually bored with those. As a unique way of telling a mystery, along with a unique location for a novel, this is a great book to read. However, I did think this book was a little long, and possibly kept repeating a couple things. I think it's one of those books that will haunt me over time!

*Book #130/322 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books

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LibraryThing member Misses_London

Having finished this book, I find that I now miss it. It's partly thriller and partly supernatural. Can it also be considered historical fiction? Its theme is a satirical commentary on Sri Lankan societal and political unrest focused largely in the 1980's. The story is told by a very naughty but

likeable protagonist based partly on his memories and partly through his viewpoint of events as he sees them from the "in-between" before he must move on to whatever comes next.

What I liked about this book is that it didn't dumb itself down to appeal to people who were largely unfamiliar with Sri Lanka (like me). The author didn't even shy away from native terminology. However, I didn't get the feeling any of this made the book burdensome to read. The extra effort made the experience even richer and more rewarding.

This book makes me want to read more books with reincarnation in the theme.

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LibraryThing member lauralkeet

Maali Almeida has just died, and was possibly killed because of incriminating photos of atrocities during the Sri Lankan Civil War. But he doesn’t know what happened and the “border control” staff in the afterlife is unable to help. They can only tell him what he needs to do to progress from

“the In Between” to “the Light,” should he choose to do so. Maali wants to find out more about how he died, and orchestrate the publication of his photos by communicating with loved ones left behind.

While this is a really intriguing premise, I found this book difficult reading for a number of reasons. There’s a supernatural component involving ghosts and other spirits, which I found a bit hard to follow. I also was quickly confused by the various factions in the war; it was difficult to keep it all straight and know who the “good guys” were (if in fact there were any, which I’m still not sure about). And finally, there was the violence: lots of it, described in detail.

I can understand why this book received critical acclaim, but I can’t say I enjoyed reading it.

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LibraryThing member Iudita

This wins my praises, not because I loved the reading experience, but because it was a smart, creative, skillfully written novel with a powerful story. Totally worthy of the Booker Prize in my opinion.

LibraryThing member bookczuk

My offspring and I read this at approximately the same time, one for an in-person book club and one for an online one. For both of us, it was one of those books that we are glad to have read. For me, the journey had a lot of ups and downs, which I need to digest a bit more.

LibraryThing member KallieGrace

I think this might be a five star on a re-read, but there's so much going on that I'm not sure I followed every string. I love the premise, a man wakes up to find himself dead and has seven days to decide what he wants to do. He's been murdered, and it has something to do with the photographs he's

taken of the war and civil unrest in his country, Sri Lanka. You meet a lot of people he's photographed as he works through his seven days, and see what sort of man Maali was along the way. Unique and captivating and funny.

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LibraryThing member mbmackay

This is a five-star effort. Bursting with confident energy and creativity, the author tells of the troubles of the late 1980s Sri Lanka through the medium (?) of the ghost of a journalist.
The book makes clear that none of the protagonists in the struggle were free from blame for attrocities, but

that the State was the clear instigator of vast excesses against citizens.
One of the worst extra-judicial killings mentioned in the book was that of journalist and activist, Richard de Zoysa in early 1990. By chance I had interactions in the Philippines with his junior associate/cadet journalist who had fled the country in the days after the killing. The shock and stress and fear in that young man has stayed with me ever since as a beacon of the wrongs of the government of the day. One hopes that this book will contribute to the conversation that needs to take place in Sri Lanka.

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LibraryThing member srms.reads

WINNER of the 2022 Booker Prize !!!

“All stories are recycled and all stories are unfair. Many get luck, and many get misery. Many are born to homes with books, many grow up in the swamps of war. In the end, all becomes dust. All stories conclude with a fade to black.”

Set in 1990 Colombo, The

Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka begins with our protagonist - professional war photographer, closeted gay and compulsive gambler- Malinda Albert Kabalana a.k.a. Maali Almeida, waking up, dazed and confused, initially assuming his condition to be the after effect of the “silly pills” his close friend Jaki shares with him. However, he soon realizes that he is now deceased (with no recollection of how he died) and is now in the afterlife - a crowded, chaotic place that he compares to a bureaucracy with its long queues and precise list of procedural formalities. He has “seven moons” (translates to seven nights), in the “In Between”, where he can roam free, recall his past life, complete the required formalities and proceed toward “The Light”.

Over the next seven moons, Maali desperately attempts to communicate with his friends, family or anyone who can hear him. He requires assistance to complete an unfinished task – among his earthly possessions is a box that contains photographs taken during his assignments- photographs of the death and devastation he has witnessed first-hand in 1980s Sri Lanka, victims including activists (who have been “disappeared”) journalists who are assumed missing and incriminating pictures of powerful people. In his own words,
” ‘These are not holiday snaps. These are photos that will bring down governments. Photos that could stop wars.’”

“Down There", his family and friends, frantically search for Maali, initially unaware that he has been killed. They approach the police who, among themselves, are initially confused about whether this disappearance warrants an investigation or a cover-up. Unbeknownst to them, many will try anything to get their hands on the photographs and Maali’s death is just a starting point for more chaos.

In the “In Between”, as Maali tries to figure out a way to get the photographs to the right people and piece together the events that led to his death, he meets an interesting mix of ghosts, ghouls, pretas and demons . He finds himself in a tug-of-war between the ghost of an academic murdered by Tamil extremists who guides Maali to complete all necessary formalities to proceed onwards and leave his past life behind and a slain member of the JVP (the communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna),who has joined forces with a vengeful demon, and who wants him to join forces to exact revenge on those responsible for the death and devastation of many innocents victims and offers to help him find his killers. He meets others who have remained in the "In Between"- ghosts of victims of violence, others who have died by suicide as well as the ghost of a leopard. In his attempt to establish contact with the living, Maali also encounters "The Crow Man" - a holy man who serves as a medium between both worlds – catering to the needs of both, his help offered at a price.

“Evil is not what we should fear. Creatures with power acting in their own interest: that is what should make us shudder.”

“Down There” we get to meet people from Maali’s life – friends, secret lovers, family members, powerful men who have employed his services in the past, political leaders and their hired goons and those Maali met on assignments covering the some of the darkest episodes in 1980s Sri Lanka (the 1983 Tamil genocide among them).

Narrated in the second person, this heady cocktail of magical realism, historical fiction, political satire and dark humor takes us through one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lanka’s history. A cast of interesting characters – both living and the deceased (“ghost, ghoul, preta, devil, yaka, demon”), the dream-like quality of writing and the vivid descriptions of the political unrest, violence, and corruption in the civil war-torn country make for a compelling read. The narrative jumps back and forth between the present day in both the living world and the "In Between" with flashbacks from Maali's professional and personal lives filling us in on the events leading up to Maali's death.

“It is not Good vs Evil out here. It is varying degrees of bad, squabbling with conglomerates of the wicked.”

The author is bold and unflinching in his description of the different warring factions within the country -Tamil Tigers, LTTE, the JVP as well as the Sri Lankan government, military and the police. He also does not hesitate to turn a critical eye to the role played by foreign countries and international organizations who offered intervention and aid during those years. I can’t say that this is an easy read, but yes, the satirical approach and the sardonic humor keep it from becoming too overwhelming. The author also gives us a brief look into the history of the country - facts about the history of colonialism in Sri Lanka and the aftermath, the turbulent political landscape, the myths, religious beliefs and customs of the region and also references the Mahavamsa - the epic poem, written originally in Pali, that chronicles the ancient history and origin of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

“ ‘History is people with ships and weapons wiping out those who forgot to invent them. Every civilisation begins with a genocide. It is the rule of the universe. The immutable law of the jungle, even this one made of concrete. You can see it in the movement of the stars, and in the dance of every atom. The rich will enslave the penniless. The strong will crush the weak.’”

Although the narrative did seem to slow down in parts with some minor repetitiveness, overall "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" is an exceptionally well-written, immersive and powerful story, truly deserving of its place on the Booker Prize shortlist. This is my first time reading Shehan Karunatilaka and I look forward to reading more of his work.

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LibraryThing member fuzzy_patters

I didn't think this was a bad book, but I thought it had too much going on. It was simultaneously a look at the political situation in Sri Lanka during the Civil War, a look at what it means to be a gay man faced with homophobia, the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the interrelations between people,

and the intersection of religion and what that could mean for us if there is an afterlife. It was a lot to digest, and I think the book tried to do too much to any of it well. It's a worthwhile read that left me wanting to do research into Sri Lankan history, but it could have been better.

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LibraryThing member Othemts

Maali Almeida is a photojournalist, a gambler, and a closeted gay man in 1980s Sri Lanka. The novel begins with his death and his arrival in a state in-between life and the afterlife that is essentially a bureaucratic office space (shades of Beetlejuice). Maali has seven moons (on week) to settle

his affairs on Earth before moving on to a stage of forgetting. As a war photojournalist he's taken photos documenting the atrocities of the Sri Lankan Civil War that he desperately wants released to the public so that it might end the violence.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a grim and darkly comic novel that satirizes Sri Lankan politics. It also relates the life of it's protagonist in flashback, curiously written in second person so that the reader identifies with Maali. Not knowing anything about the Sri Lankan Civil is definitely a challenge for me reading this book, although learning new things is one of the purposes of reading. It's also a strange and complicated story, but it does make for an interesting story of a specific place and time, with some magical realism for added measure.

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LibraryThing member Kristelh

Reason read: Booker TBR takedown
This is a 2022 novel by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lanken/British). This book won the Booker in 2022. I listened to the audio through Hoopla Digital and it was excellently narrated. The description of the book is "searing satire set amid the mayhem of

Sri Lankan civil war. The story is told by dead Maali Almeida, a photographer who sets out to solve the mystery of his own death and is given one week ("seven moons") during which he can travel between the afterlife and the real world. The death of Maali is gradually reviewed over the seven days and I thought this was an interesting way to learn about the civil war in Sri Lankan though it is not the only thing that is revealed. A good portion of this story looks at life of a gay man in a country that does not condone homosexuality.

I think the book did deserve to win a prize. It is an imaginative and well developed plot line. I don't generally like books with so much sexual content but this also is well done.

Because this story takes place in the afterlife, there is a great deal of what I suppose can be called magical realism or fantasy.

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