The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - April 2025 Book Club Reading

[Falselogic]

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a 2022 novel by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka and winner of the 2022 Booker Prize. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was published August 2022 by the small independent London publisher. An earlier version of the novel was originally published in the Indian subcontinent as Chats with the Dead in 2020.

Shehan Karunatilaka (born 1975) is a Sri Lankan writer. He grew up in Colombo, and has lived and worked across the world. His first published novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, was released in 2010. The book won multiple prizes and is considered by some to be one of the greatest cricket books ever written. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is his third book and won 2022 Booker Prize.

The novel is set in Sri Lanka in the 1980s, and written in the second person. The central character, Maali Almeida, is a dead photographer who sets out to solve the mystery of his own death and is given one week ("seven moons") during which he can travel between the afterlife and the real world In this time, he hopes to retrieve a set of photographs, stored under a bed, and to persuade his friends to share them widely to expose the brutalities of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

 

[Falselogic]

My own personal 'to-read' list has shrunk enough that when I was trying to pick books for the book club I didn't have enough to pull from. So, I reviewed some recent Book Prizes winners and The Seven Moons stuck out to me and had me intrigued. I'm looking forward to reading it with you all.

 

[lincolnic]

I'm looking forward to this one as well! There are 22 available copies at the library and I just put my hold in, so I'll probably have it by Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

[Violentvixen]

On hold at the library. It also makes me wonder how many other Sri Lankan authors I've read, hmm.

 

[Falselogic]

On hold at the library. It also makes me wonder how many other Sri Lankan authors I've read, hmm.

I think this will be my first.

 

[Violentvixen]

Just started this and wanted to stop and look things up before even starting the first chapter.

The "Father, forgive them, for I will never" opening quote and the name Richard de Zoysa seemed familiar to me but I couldn't quite place it. Looks like we'll be learning more about his story through the book so I held off on digging too deep. But if anyone else is interested I found the full text of that poem (Good Friday 1975) and others here. Apocalypse Soon also seemed really familiar, going to have to ask my mom about it.

I'm also incredibly intrigued by the opening page with the quote "there are only two gods worth worshipping. Chance and electricity". I don't know how to interpret that, in a good way as I absolutely want to know more now.

 

[lincolnic]

My hold came in on Friday, but I wasn't able to pick it up yesterday so it'll have to wait until Tuesday when the library's open later and I can grab it on my way home from work.

 

[Violentvixen]

I am struggling to follow what's going on in this. I'm really intrigued and want to know but the constant switching in time/perspective is incredibly confusing to me. It's something I struggle with in any book with multiple narratives/perspectives so it's more of a me problem than this book. I just can't tell if he's watching scenes from his life in like a Christmas Carol, or retelling them or reliving them or if it's something else entirely.

 

[Falselogic]

I think he is sharing memories that provide context to what we see in each of the seven days of his afterlife. Though it is a bit confusing with how the chapters and such are labelled.

The time/perspective jumps aren't bothering me as much as my complete lack of historical, sociological, and political history of Sri Lanka and the surrounding areas. I need to do some wikipedia reading, I guess.

 

[Violentvixen]

Finished it. What helped me was going and reading a bunch of reviews of the book from different outlets as well as more stories at the original photographer it's based on. This gave me a lot more context so then I could follow the book a lot more easily. I was still quite confused by Mahakali because I'm more familiar with her from other works as a goddess and this seemed like a monster type styling, I never quite understood the situation. Overall I don't know if I'd recommend the book but I did like it and am happy I read it, thank you @Falselogic for introducing me to Sri Lankan literature and making me more aware of a time in that country that was previously just something I'd read a sentence or two about in history class.

I definitely like the writing style. Reviews were mentioning the author's other more comedic book Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, about finding a cricket player. Based on everything I read I suspect I'd like that book better, and the overall review ratings are higher. Suggested it as a purchase at my library.