" The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" by Shehan Karunatilaka audiobook was published on 12/20/2022 in U.S.A. It was provided to me for a review purposes courtesy of NetGalley and HighBridge Audio. Thank you so much! Opinions stated herein are my own.

This book won 2022 Booker Prize and also highly praised by one of my favorite BookTuber, so I was very happy to receive this audiobook for review. To add more excitement, it is written by an Sri Lankan author, which I have never read before and I was very curious to explore Sri Lankan literature

The book starts in 1990 in the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo. Maali Almeida, who describes himself as a photographer, gambler and slut, found himself dead in a lake and in a purgatory of a sort. He was tasked to find out what happened to him in seven moons (seven days). It is a part suspense, a part political intrigue, and a part active love life in Sri Lanka, all told with dark humor to ease terribly painful recent history. Maali's investigation unfolds a tumultuous and unstable period in Sri Lankan history in 1980s, mixed with terror of AIDS epidemic. I didn't have any idea of Sri Lankan history, and this book gave me a glimpse of being a war photographer in such times. It is an eye opening.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and would look forward to reading this author's other books, especially if it is on a lighter topic. This book is a bit too macabre for me, and also a bit heavy (it would be very hard to write this sort of book of a war-torn country without heaviness), also a bit too long to my personal liking. I would rate it 3 1/2 stars round up to 4 stars. It's an impressive book, and I would recommend it especially for those who wants to learn more intimate history of Sri Lankan conflict.

This was a fantastic book and the narrator was perfect. It was a mix of thriller and historical fiction. It definitely made me research more about Sri Lanka during the 80s. The story was so vivid. I just loved this book!

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka absolutely deserves the accolades it has received, particularly the Booker Prize for 2022. I was patiently waiting for the US release to read this book when it was on the short list. When I was able to listen to the exceptionally well done audiobook through NetGalley, I was very excited.

This book is about Maali Almeida, a mid thirties photographer who just died and has been received in a limbo area of the afterlife. Here he can stay for seven moons while he discovers why he is there and meets many other ghosts. It is a Christmas Carol retelling and while I have never read the original, I enjoyed this far more than any movie adaptation. Maali is such deep and complex character that we learn about slowly. From the beginning, the author makes you wonder what did Maali do that was so bad? And then piecemeal, we learn about Maali's sins and his love. The way this book blends a classic story with a rich and detailed Sri Lankan setting and culture is nothing short of genius. The vocal talent on this audiobook increases that richness perfectly.

If this book was on your list to read, I think you should move it up. And if it wasn't on your radar, maybe it should be. It is a story rich with dynamic characters, political unrest, social taboos, and queer love. I think it will blow you away. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is an incredibly original, thought-provoking, and surprisingly funny story of a murdered photojournalist attempting to communicate with the living in seven moons through his afterlife. There was a lot of depth to this story, which I enjoyed, but it did make things difficult to follow. This is definitely a story that demands your full attention, though I believe it to be absolutely worthwhile.

I had a pretty good feeling Seven Moons would take the 2022 Booker Prize crown because naturally, it was one of the few longlist books I hadn't read beforehand. However, that has since been rectified, and I really enjoyed it!

Set in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1990, Maali Almeida wakes up disoriented in what appears to be a chaotic bureaucratic office filled with lines of unusual characters. He eventually learns that he's dead and this space is the "In Between." He has no clue how he was killed, and he has seven moons (seven nights) to get his affairs in order before he can proceed towards "The Light."

This book covers quite a bit, including the political unrest and corruption of Sri Lanka during this tumultuous moment in history. These intense events are balanced with dark humor and magical realism, all of which created an interesting dynamic. It was oddly funny, but I was brought back to reality by the next page when a body was casually chopped up and dumped in a river.

Overall - a worthy win for this prestigious award. While many of these "super literary" books often exude whiffs of pretentiousness, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was approachable with sharp, elegant writing.

The audio narrator is fantastic for this novel. The story is vividly told. But I couldn’t find a way into this story or understand where it was taking me. I wasn’t sure whether the tone was sardonic or tragic. The story was full of color but I couldn’t see the pattern. Perhaps too many words for what might be captured by just three of them: not for me.

I had this book on audiobook as well as print and, for this one, I prefer the print. Both the second person narration and the humor worked better for me in print.

This review is specifically for the audiobook version narrated by Shivantha Wijesinha.
This is not just a book, it's an experience where dark humor meets magical realism, militant ghosts and a main character that is both endearing and ambiguous in 1990s Sri Lanka. Both narration and story were 5 stars experiences for me. Wijesinha's expressive rhythm and intonations made for an immersive experience, and I would probably listen to just about anything if he's the one reading it. Really, I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed my time with this book. Grim and beautiful, sorrowful but not without hope, queer in a way that is neither sorry nor unapologetic but rather in a "it is what it is" sort of way, it's nuanced and really lives up to its cover art.
The imagery in this book is sometimes brutal and Wijesinha really brings it to life.
This book reminded me of another favorite of mine, Ghost Town by Kevin Chen, for the way the events slowly reveal themselves through what I would call accidents of a character study. The story is peppered with pop culture references which was something I did not expect but enjoyed in the same way as Ghost Town is peppered with talks of food. Don't get me wrong they are very different stories, they just share a similar story telling form and if you loved one you'll probably love the other too.

This is a big, epic, important book masquerading as a murder mystery, in the best way. If it was made into a movie, it would have to be something like Everything Everywhere All at Once. It lulls you in with the familiar and uses that to explore a strange, mystical world, when secretly it's all about real life humans, our relationships with each other, and the world around us. I kept trying to think of the right way to describe it, and I ended up with "It's bigger on the inside." Sometimes reading important books can feel like work. This never does. It's entertaining as hell from start to finish, and I'm very grateful to Netgalley for giving me a chance to experience the audio version.

"You want to ask the universe what everyone else wants to ask the universe. Why are we born, why do we die, why anything has to be. And all the universe has to say in reply is: I don’t know, arsehole, stop asking. The Afterlife is as confusing as the Before Death, the In Between is as arbitrary as the Down There. So we make up stories because we’re afraid of the dark."

WOW! Reminiscent of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, but here instead of utilizing the time leading to death to revisit our main characters life, the seven moons following Maali's death plunge us into understanding of his life and his desperation to set things right after his death - with a dash of benevolent (but still incredibly frustrating) bureaucracy.

This read is more than worth your time. It will stomp on your heart and you will thank Karunatilaka for it.

Is it an irreverent look at war atrocities? A sprawling, in-depth take on a decades long tragedy? A somehow deeply hilarious dark comedy? A humanity-filled ghost caper? A book of magical realism to rival the masters of the form? A book on standing up to power? A murder mystery being investigated by the murder victim? A book that somehow combines all of these and in the end becomes a book that is a genre all of its own? YES!

Maali Almeida, self-described photographer, gambler, and slut, is a local war photographer documenting the bloody conflict ravaging the island of Sri Lanka. This book is very much not for the squeamish as it documents all manner of murders, with a special emphasis on Black July, a pogrom against the Tamil people in 1983. The novel starts with Maali's entrance into afterlife and the looming seven moon deadline to get to the bottom of his murder and release his war-stopping photographs.

Over these seven moons, we delve into Maali's relationship with his "girlfriend" Jaki and his lover DD. And then further relationships built in the afterlife and while reminisces and flashbacks add gravity to Maali's journey into the Light, or not.

Fully deserving of the Booker, a unique reading experience I plan to revisit.