Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

English language

Published Dec. 2, 2023 by Sort of Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-914502-07-1

(1 review)

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a 2022 novel by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka and winner of the 2022 Booker Prize. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was published on 4 August 2022 by the small independent London publisher Sort of Books (ISBN 978-1908745903). An earlier version of the novel was originally published in the Indian subcontinent as Chats with the Dead in 2020.

5 editions

Kian Ryan reviewed The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

A glimpse in to the politics on 1990s Sri Lanka, through the lens of urban fantasy.

5 stars

Content warning Plot Spoilers

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida feels like familiar territory to readers of Neil Gaiman or Ben Aranovich. Maali Almeida is dead, and we follow him in his afterlife as he attempts to come to terms with his death and the influence that has on those around him. Less familiar to me as a reader from the UK, is the use of language and the politics of 1990s Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is in utter termoil at this point, utterly corrupt and internally terrorized by governmental and terrorist organisations. Maali up until his death was playing all sides, and then in death is still attempting to effect change. Reflecting the contradictions in Sri Lanka is the country's approach to queer culture. Queer culture is opressed in Sri Lanka, but rife - in the novel almost acting as a underground counter-culture to the opression of the Sri-Lankan government.