Pamela Grace

Looking for your new favorite book? Look no further.

Rarely is there a novel that speaks to the complexity of gay rights set amongst the gritty horror of war and answers the celestial mysteries of the afterlife. This book has it all. Homosexuality? Check. Murderous government officials set on destroying the country? Check. Unrequited love? Check. Estranged family members and generational trauma? Check. Spirituality, afterlife, and spooky ghosts? Check. A collection of blood, gore, and creepy spirits ready to devour your soul? Check, check, and check.

Set in Colombo, the war-torn capital of Sri Lanka in the mid-1990s during the Sri Lankan Civil War, Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida takes us on a whirlwind experience filled with mystery, intrigue, and romance. This satirical novel follows Maali Almeida, a murdered Sri Lankan war photographer, who also happens to be a gambling addict and a closeted gay, as he discovers the intricacies of the afterlife. While sharing his experiences from a birds-eye perspective, Maali hovers – or haunts – the city as he tries to decipher the clues that will lead him to his killer and allow him to communicate with the two people he loves the most. Maali has only seven days or moons to make peace and lead his friends to the photos that could put an end to the war.

Karunatilaka pulls the reader in with rich descriptions, fluid authentic language, immensely flawed characters, and a biting wit. Maali provides narration that slowly reveals the thematic nuances of a sad reality of wasted time alive and shows the disparity of making amends once the moment has passed. In one scene Maali recounts a conversation with DD about promising to come out to his girlfriend, Jaki. He says, “You left promising to tell Jaki, which you didn’t. He parted, saying he couldn’t lend you the money, which of course he eventually did. You lost a small portion of it at the roulette table, used some of it to buy a blow job in Anuradhapura, and the rest you gave to a family fleeing the shelling in Vavuniya.” Even though the protagonist is an absolute mess and a bit of an anti-hero, Maali endears himself to readers through subtle moments of foreshadowing and flashbacks. Karunatilaka’s second novel is no doubt worthy of its Booker Prize Award as it is a well-executed, captivating story that had me glued to my seat until the very end.

Where to Buy:

“The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” Shehan Karunatilaka, Penguin Books, India, https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida-shehan-karunatilaka/18834287?ean=9781324064824, 2022. 386pp. ISBN 9780143459675. US$18.

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