“The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” Shehan Karunatilaka　(2022) Review | Provocative and real

★★★★★ Provocative and rock and roll. It’s a fantasy, a magical realism that really tells the reality of Sri Lanka, through the eyes of this dead unreliable photographer/lover/gambler. It’s a loud music in a book.

🔽 log 🔽
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka, 2022
368 pages
Read 2024.09


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The book I've been looking forward to read, though I tried not to know the plot in advance. 
So if you don't want to know anything else, just know that you will love it, and don't read further, even if you do, it'll be beyond your imagination anyway though.

So, first you are dead, and you need to find out why and who did it.
There are ghosts and monsters, it's a mystery, in modern Sri Lanka, in a messy war - you can have these key words and still it's way over what you might expect.

It's difficult to get into the story without some knowledge of Sri Lanka but it slowly takes you to its world. 

It addresses the protagonist as "you" so it feels like you're discovering it all with him. Him being a lousy war photographer, gambler and a unfaithful lover who's gay; he is an anti-hero who is rather hateful, but, somehow becomes not so hateful after you spend 7 moons with him.

It's provocative, anything can happen here.
It's a fantasy as much as it's the reality in Sri Lanka.
Non stop greatness that you can't pigeon hole it, a reading experience that's similar to being in a room with loud rock music, or whatever your favourite music is.

Booker Prize winner

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida: Winner of the Booker Prize 2022 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Le sette lune di Maali Almeida (Italiano)