Maali Almeida is dead. At first he doesn't want to believe it but he has to face reality. Maali is a photographer in Sri Lanka. He doesn't take pretty pictures; instead he documents the civil war, the government forces and the rebels, the pain, the torture, the war crimes. He is freelance and works with various overseas news organizations. In his personal life, Maali is not anyone's poster boy for morality. He is a gambler and a bad one at that. He is gay and loves DD but cheats on him constantly.

Maali learns that he has seven days to decide if he will go into the light or remain in the nebulous territory of his former life as a ghost. He has one thing he wants to do before he decides. He wants his hidden trove of negatives to be printed and displayed to bring down those involved in tearing the country apart. He also wants to insure that DD and his cousin Jaki, the two people in the world he loves, are as safe as they can be in such a tumultuous environment. Which way will Maali choose?

This novel won the Booker Prize in 2022. I listened to this novel and the narrator's accent grounded me in this part of the world. It is a searing indictment of war and those in power who use their power to grind down those around them, willing to do anything to anyone in order to remain on top. Shehan Karunatilaka is a Sri Lakan author who is considered one of the top authors of his country. In addition to the Booker, his work has also won the Commonwealth Prize. He also writes children's stories and rock songs but this novel is his masterpiece, showing war for the evil it is. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

NetGalley ARC audio.

The story begins with the end. Maali Almeida, "photographer, gambler, slut" has died under mysterious circumstances. Instead of sweet oblivion he finds himself stuck in the the in between. He is told he has 7 moons to settle his affairs before he "goes into the light". But where to start! Finding out how he died? Saying goodbye to his secret boyfriend? Direct his friends towards the photographs that expose the corruption and violence of 1980's Sri Lanka? I went into this book knowing very little of Sri Lanka. The author does a really great job detailing the country's history and cultures.

This is a really beautiful book. The writing is impeccable and Maali is a wonderful character. In life he was a bit of a user. He has difficulty expressing his love to his partner and can't tell his best friend that he is gay. As he goes along his ghostly business, Maali meets various ghosts, sprits and demons. These meetings go a long way in detailing the realities of Sri Lanka during this time.

The narrator does a fantastic job. Parts of this book is in the second person present, generally it is helpful for me to listen to those books because I can get lost in the narrative.

Such a beautiful novel! Karunatilaka explores themes like life and death with ease. This was astoundingly creative and refreshing.

I really loved Seven Moons, I thought that the writing was serious yet very funny at times. I appreciated learning more about Sri Lanka as well. It was great on audio.

3.5

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is such a hard book to pin down. It’s a historical literary mystery, it’s magical realism, it’s political satire, and it’s so much more.

The book opens with Maali Almeida waking up dead, and the tale that unfurls allows the reader to be Maali as he pieces together his final moments. As we learn more about Maali, it’s clear that any number of people could have been the one to kill him as he made a lot of enemies. He was a gambler, a war photographer who worked for some shady organizations and took photos that implicated all sides of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and a closeted queer man who serially cheated on his partner.

There were so many things about this that worked for me. I love unconventional narrative structures, which this definitely did as it’s written in second person. I love messy main characters, and Maali definitely ticked that box. I also love books that allow me the freedom to go down research rabbit holes, and this book definitely accomplished that. I spent many nights looking up a variety of facts about the Sri Lankan Civil War and related events, and comparing what I was reading to my own experiences in the country 30 years later.

That being said, there were a lot of characters in this book. I often found myself losing track of minor characters and how they related to the plot, and I found the ultimate resolution of the who killed Maali Almeida plot unsatisfying. That being said, I think this is a book that will stick with me and I could see it getting a higher rating upon reread.

Overall, I thought this was an incredibly ambitious story and I’m impressed by Karunatilaka’s ability to pack so much detail into a relatively short book. I listened to an audio review copy and found the combination of the writing and Shivantha Wijesinha’s narration to be very immersive. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for unique story structures about parts of the world and events often ignored by US media.

I was given a NetGalley widget for this one a year ago and I just got around to reading it and dangit it was so good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have consumed this wildly relevant fictional tale, which felt not at all fictional, more like historical fiction, due to the times. The cover initially was what drew me in, but I'm so thankful to have stuck with it because the outcome was magical. I always love listening to audiobooks and when they sweep me off my feet, I'm just utterly captivated!

So very complicated and intricately woven together. Set in the '90's in Columbia a complicated character wakes up dead, dismembered and sinking. So much death, suicide bombers, death squads and those looking for trouble the suspect list is very long. This one was over my head and I wasn't able to connect very well. Yet it was a Booker Longlist selection.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about this one. Much prefer going into books with little knowledge and highly recommend for this one. You’re in for a confusing first little bit but there will come a point where it clicks and then you won’t be able to read fast enough. I completely understand why this one the Booker Prize

This was such a riveting book. An original concept with interesting characters and incredibly well-written. 4 stars only because it was a little tough for me to follow what was happening in the beginning, when Mali was riding winds and the plot was jumping from present to past.

This was really fantastic and interesting. I enjoyed the writing and the story. It was a really unique take on what was essentially a murder mystery. I would highly encourage everyone to check this one out.

4/5

This was a fascinating listen starting Jan after life in the waiting room. I really enjoyed learning about Sri Lankan history it was turkey a wonderful read. I wouldn’t say it was an easy read since some of the topics it covered were heavy, (war and death) but it is a very intricate and detail oriented.

Maali Almeida is a very interesting character, when the book starts with him waking up dead and realizing he has 7 days to figure out who murdered him and why. He documented the brutal war in Sri Lanka and it was a wonderful journey we were taken on. During the seven days we meet many characters and learned a lot about his life including that he was a closeted gay man.

I did like how we knew from the start that there wouldn’t be cliff hangers. It was a wonderfully suspenseful read that I kept wanting to know more about!

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me a copy of this book in turn for my honest opinion.

Call it cultural preference, experience, or influence, but I love a ghost/duppy/spirit-led story. A story crafted using the beliefs and folkloric style. The Seven Moons follows the perspective of a recently departed soul that now needs to find out what and who caused their death, learning how to maneuver the politics and stages of the spiritual waiting room, coming to terms with what is lost, and what can be done to bring his work to light.

What I loved about how Karunatilaka's constructed this tale are the vulnerabilities that stay with Maali, the flaws and complexity that are revealed the more we learn about him and what he did. Maali has as much control in the afterlife as he did when alive. He learns that the spiritual world is just as hierarchical and beholden to power and standing much like the human world.

He is honest in his portrayal of the aftermath and lingering scars of the ethnically motivated war. And though he injects a dry humour, the reader is fully immersed in this broken society.

The narrator is exceptionally good, changing tone and register as he changes characters and place that elicit emotional changes in the reader.

In a Nutshell: A stark look at the political and social situation in late 1980s Sri Lanka but in a satirical-cum-fantastical packaging. After a long time, I found a Booker winner that focusses on plot progression as much as writing flourishes. Worth a read even for those wary of such award winners. (Just in case it’s still not clear, I am not a Booker winner fan.)

Story Synopsis:
1990, Colombo. Maali Almeida – war photographer, gambler, and closet homosexual – is dead. He doesn’t know how he died, when or where he died, or even if someone killed him. After all, his job puts him into regular skirmishes with the various factions , both legal and illegal, governing over Sri Lanka. All Maali knows is that he is in some kind of divine administrative building that processes dead souls. He is told that he has seven moons to set his affairs in order before he needs to walk towards the light. There’s just one thing that Maali wants to do – lead the two people he loves most towards a hidden stash of controversial photographs.
The story comes to us written in the *second person*, addressed to Maali.

Where the book worked for me:
😍 The innovative storyline. The story is a potent mix of satire, historical fiction, dark humour and low fantasy, with an LGBTQ+ track as well. Yet it didn’t seem overpowering. Imagine political corruption and folklore fitting seamlessly into a single plot! The humour helps balance out the savagery.
😍 The attention to detail. Every character and every scene was sketched well. Terms that might be new to readers were explained in a quirky way without making them seem like newspaper articles or dictionary definitions. I found it easy to navigate through this book despite not being much aware of local Sri Lankan politics. (The book is politically intensive.)
😍 The authentic feel. Shehan Karunatilaka seems to know his country in and out, and it reflects in the writing. The ethos and the pathos of Sri Lanka both appear to have been captured well. (Only a Sri Lankan would be able to comment on the accuracy though.)
😍 The second person voice is the toughest one to get right. But the author handles this excellently. Not once did I feel like the voice was erroneously applied. Whether flashbacks or contemporary time, whether the divine office or ‘Down There’, the second person is put to effective use in making us feel like a part of the plot.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
😔 With too many characters, a complicated plot, and convoluted timelines, the content felt a bit overwhelming. This problem wouldn’t have occurred if I were reading this instead of listening to it.
😔 The mystery about Maali’s cause of death and its subsequent resolution wasn’t satisfying. The revelation felt almost anti-climactic after all the build-up.
😔 A couple of the “moons” feel very repetitive. The middle section of the story drags a bit.


The audiobook experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 14 hrs 15 min, is narrated by Shivantha Wijesinha. He was brilliant! Despite the vast number of characters in the plot, he narrates them each with aplomb, using a distinctive speaking style based on the nationality of the characters. His way of saying “Aiyyoooo!” has percolated into my vocabulary as well. 😄
However, despite the fantastic narrator, I have a strong feeling that I would have liked this book even better had I read it. It would have been much easier to keep track of the moons and the people.


Basically, like almost every Booker winner, this too is a character-oriented novel. If you don’t enjoy character-driven literary fiction, this won’t work for you. However, to lit-fic readers, this novel will come as a fresh voice offering a perspective on a topic not commonly seen in fiction.

Recommended for sure but to a specific set of readers.

4 stars.

My thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.

Trigger: It is a book about a war photographer’s experiences. Think every trigger related to war, and you will find it in this book. It is not for the faint-hearted.

This is about a dead photo journalist trying to figure out life and death in seven moons he has to settle things after death. This is set during civil war in Sri Lanka later 1980s and early 1990s. The story is interwoven with characters with conflicting interests and background.

This is my number one for 2022 along with being last book of the year.

Maali Almeida, a gambler and a closeted gay war photographer, in 1990's Colombo finds himself in a chaotic and crowded afterlife with no recollection of how he got there. He's told he has seven moons in purgatory where he can piece out what happened to him and complete the bureaucratic formalities of afterlife. Meanwhile his family and friends don't know what happened to him and are searching for him.

This book was so well done and so unique. The descriptions of political unrest and corruption were so vivid, the Sri Lankan lore and history so well weaved into the story. I found myself wanting to dive deep into the history of Sri Lanka. I loved the unflinching dark satirical tone of this. I can definitely see why this one won the Booker prize.

I was so thrilled to receive an ALC (thank you HighBridge Audio) of this and I really can't recommend it enough, it was excellent and captured the tone of the book perfectly.

This was a strange, violent, and beautiful novel, and I am glad that it won the 2022 Booker prize. I read a number of the long-listed books this year, but somehow missed this one. Set in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the novel opens with the main character, photographer Maali Almeida, waking up and realizing that he is dead! In some ways, reminiscent of Lincoln in the Bardo, our hero finds himself in a sort of administrative holding pattern and discovers that has seven moons (days) to complete several tasks to close out his work on earth. The novel picks up as it moves along, and is one of very few that I can think of that successfully navigates the all-too-often-tricky second person narrative point of view, The novel turns into a rollicking thriller, and the author does some very fancy footwork in zooming us in and out of the often absurd, troubled, and chaotic world of Colombo with an always dark, sardonic, humor.

I listened to the audio version of the book, and I highly recommend this narrator.

Thanks to HighBridge Audio and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! This was definitely one of my top books of 2022- I can see why this is a Booker Prize winner! The plot was absolutely amazing. The premise was unique but the supporting storylines played so nicely into the overall theme. I spent a lot of time with this audiobook thinking about different chapters and occurrences. The story was engaging and when I finished, I felt satisfied and took so much away with me.

The narrator: I absolutely enjoyed the performance by the narrator. Each character was played so well and it really helped bring the words to life. I couldn't imagine a better job being done.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback.

This was a solid 3.5 stars for me, though I'm stuck as to whether to round up or down without the option for half stars. Very imaginative story as Maali tries to figure out how he was killed and how to communicate with his loved ones left behind to find him and his killers by moving through the "in-between" of the afterlife. Karunatilaka provides a twisty story amidst the Sri Lankan civil war, bringing to light the horrors of the conflict through meetings with so many vividly interesting characters, mainly corpses who died terrible deaths, but with a macabre humor that cuts some of the shock. While reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite books, it was just a bit too confusing at the start with the many characters and agencies involved and the jumping timeframe, and a shade too strange and violent for me personally. I will definitely recommend to patrons looking for magical realism and intricate plot lines. A big thank you to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the early listen to the audio version in return for my honest opinion.

Late 1980’s Colombo, Sri Lanka and war photographer Maali Almeida discovers, to his surprise, that he is dead and somehow stuck in the “in between.” He has only seven moons to uncover how he died before the next phase; his afterlife. While examining his former self, he begins to address his sins, his lies, his indiscretions, his vices; guiding him to confront who he was in life and who he will be in the great beyond. Often this tale reminded me of the movie GHOST. Read-alike: LINCOLN IN THE BARDO by George Saunders and A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, a sweeping novel that easily transports you to another time. It was reminiscent of Dante's Inferno mixed with modern-day fiction in the most intriguing way.