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The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Shehan Karunatilaka

Discussion: Booker Prize for Fiction

Why we're reading this: Booker Longlist 2022
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Booker Prize for Fiction

* 2025 Booker Prize Shortlist Discussion
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What Members Thought

Sep 28, 2022 Anita Pomerantz rated it it was ok

If I were going strictly on enjoyment of this book, my rating would be a one, but I will give the author kudos for excellent use of the second person - - a voice I happen to enjoy.

But other than that, I was not a fan.

I don't know much about Sri Lanka, but my impressions from this book are entirely negative - corrupt, homophobic, violent, backward, awful. Then, overlay this backdrop with a quasi mystery aka "who killed Maali Almeida?" and a B-movie plot about who possesses Maali's photograph nega ...more

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Sep 06, 2022 Phyllis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-fantasy-scifi, topic-evilandgood, published-2020s, topic-theology-mythology, topic-gender-sexuality, topic-liferecurring, category-fiction, topic-death-dying, genre-historicalfiction, topic-war-insurrection-revolution

"And, without a doubt, that is the kindest thing you can say about life. It's not nothing." This is a beautiful book, that recounts many ugly things.

Malinda Albert Kabalan, a/k/a Maali Almeida, was born in Sri Lanka in 1955 and died there in 1990. This story is about the first seven moons following his death, as in the "In Between" he slowly remembers how he died and all of the events leading up to that moment. Maali was a war photographer and also, as he claims on page 1, a gambler and a slut "And, without a doubt, that is the kindest thing you can say about life. It's not nothing." This is a beautiful book, that recounts many ugly things.

Malinda Albert Kabalan, a/k/a Maali Almeida, was born in Sri Lanka in 1955 and died there in 1990. This story is about the first seven moons following his death, as in the "In Between" he slowly remembers how he died and all of the events leading up to that moment. Maali was a war photographer and also, as he claims on page 1, a gambler and a slut -- "a handsome man who enjoyed beautiful boys." He lived his life by calculating the odds. "You believed that no harm would reach you, because you were protected, not by angels, but by the laws of probability which stated that really bad things happened not very often, except when they did."

Maali hardly knew his father, who was Sinhalese but left Maali and his mom "Lucky" when Maali was 11 and then expatriated to the U.S. to live in Missouri when Maali was 18. His mom was half Tamil and half Burgher, and they barely talk. On awaking in the afterlife, Maali cares about nothing more than a hidden shoebox of his photographs, documenting Sri Lanka's civil war from 1983 through 1990. Except, as it turns out, his lover Dilan "DD" Dharmendran and his best friend & beard (and DD's cousin) Jaki Vairavanathan.

Everyone has a hand in and no one is solving the violence in Sri Lanka, including Great Britain, India, the United States, Canada, Norway, Israel, China, Pakistan, the United Nations. Everyone has a side and a goal and an enemy and a hero and a martyr, including the Sri Lankan army, government, police, and secret police, and the vying parties of the LTTE Tamil Tigers, the JVP Jonathan Vimukthi Peramuna, and the UNP United National Party. So "Whose side are you on, kolla?"

It takes a bit to get oriented to the story, since the reader is traveling along with Maali who himself takes a bit to get oriented to the fact of no longer being alive and how things work and what if anything he can do about it. But it is so worth the time spent getting synched with Maali and his story. The Booker got it right in short-listing this novel for the 2022 award. ...more

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Sep 19, 2022 Andy Weston rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, magic-realism, sri-lanka

Despite its clear plot, with various mysteries along the way to be wrapped up and solved, as a whole this is just too billowing and cumbersome to work as far as I’m concerned.

There’s innovation and some humour, but somewhere the balance is wrong.

I enjoyed Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew very much, and Karunatilaka clearly is an impressive author, for example here, in the way he conveys the divide between the spirit and real world entertainingly. But with his protagonist here, a gambling ...more

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Mar 13, 2023 Lorrie rated it liked it

The good: a unique take on everything! Some amazing sentences among the many that were not.

The bad: really grim (really), overly long, who are all those people,

The overall take: this book is a struggle, and one that I almost gave up on several times, but I’m glad I made it through. The Booker Prize will gain this book readers but it is not one I would recommend to most.

PS. Even though this book was set several decades ago, Sri Lanka is certainly not a place I ever would want to visit. Guessin ...more

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Feb 05, 2023 Aaron Broadwell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gay-and-lesbian

Pretty spectacular novel!

For a reader not familiar with Sri Lankan history, this is eye-opening. The main character is Maali Almeida, who has been murdered and has seven moons (=days) to recall and survey his life in the "In between" before going on to what follows.

This recall of his life introduces us to the pogroms and torture squads of Sri Lanka, the government oppression of Tamils, the Tamil terrorists killing anyone who disagrees with them, the secret gay life of Colombo, and many other fas ...more

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