Review: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

I am cross posting this book review from my personal blog. This is especially for sbarrkum.  Too often, BP is inordinately focused on India and Pakistan while neglecting other countries in the South Asian region.  This essay was initially published in October 2022, soon after Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize.

As a South Asian, I was delighted that this year’s Booker Prize was won by someone from our region. I was excited to get my hands on Shehan Karunatilaka’s prizewinning novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida 

The novel can best be described as a detective story and as a ghost story set during the height of Sri Lanka’s civil war.  In the opening pages, the protagonist–Maali Almeida–finds himself in a waiting room which he quickly realizes is the afterlife. He doesn’t remember how he died and he has seven days (the titular seven moons) to find out who killed him before he must go into “the light”.  Maali was a photojournalist involved in documenting the war and the suspects for his death include the Sri Lankan security forces as well as the Tamil Tigers.  He was also in possession of photos that would rock Sri Lanka and he makes it his mission to lead the two people he loves most– his boyfriend DD and his best friend Jaki–  to the negatives.

Initially, I found the novel hard to get into since it uses the second person point of view (“you”) and begins in medias res. It is not immediately clear why Maali is in the afterlife and the narrative is a bit confusing.  However, once the story got going, I found myself intrigued and wondering who Maali’s killer would turn out to be.  As a fan of detective stories, I can see how this novel easily fits into that genre.  I will not give away the plot but suffice it to say that I found the eventual revelation of the killer to be quite surprising.

For those readers not familiar with Sri Lanka’s history, the novel provides a window into some of the troubled times that the country went through.  The government is fighting not only Tamil separatists but also left wing forces. Maali’s disappearance and later death is explained as a result of his being a left activist (though this is not the real motivation).  Throughout the narrative, Maali interacts with other ghosts who represent various sections of society who suffered because of the war. These include moderate Tamils, left activists, and even foreign tourists murdered in an airplane hijacking.  Karunatilaka provides a sense of the complexity of the war and the fact that no side had entirely clean hands.  Those who follow current events would remember that earlier in 2022 there was much political instability in Sri Lanka and the incumbent president had to flee the country. Clearly, Sri Lanka is dealing with the traumatic effects of the civil war and the Sinhala majority government’s repression of the Tamil minority.

Another major theme of the book is the difficulties that come with being homosexual in Sri Lanka (and by implication other societies in South Asia).  The 1990s was a period of much less gay rights globally and certainly in South Asia.  Maali is in the closet as is DD.  DD’s father is a government minister which further compounds DD’s difficulties in living openly.  Jaki was initially Mali’s girlfriend but their relationship changed once he began dating DD (who is also her cousin).  Throughout the narrative, Karunatilaka is able to shed light on the experience of being closeted and judged for one’s sexuality though of course this takes second place to the larger political turmoil.

Overall, I would recommend the novel to fans of detective stories, ghost stories and to those interested in Sri Lankan history.  Karunatilaka is certainly a worthy winner of the Booker Prize.