The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

No cover — The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (EBook, 2022, W. W. Norton & Company)

eBook, 400 pages

English language

Published Nov. 1, 2022 by W. W. Norton & Company.

ASIN:: B0BFG2K29B

(1 review)

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka.

7 editions

Kian Ryan reviewed The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

A glimpse in to the politics on 1990s Sri Lanka, through the lens of urban fantasy.

5 stars

Content warning Plot Spoilers

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida feels like familiar territory to readers of Neil Gaiman or Ben Aranovich. Maali Almeida is dead, and we follow him in his afterlife as he attempts to come to terms with his death and the influence that has on those around him. Less familiar to me as a reader from the UK, is the use of language and the politics of 1990s Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is in utter termoil at this point, utterly corrupt and internally terrorized by governmental and terrorist organisations. Maali up until his death was playing all sides, and then in death is still attempting to effect change. Reflecting the contradictions in Sri Lanka is the country's approach to queer culture. Queer culture is opressed in Sri Lanka, but rife - in the novel almost acting as a underground counter-culture to the opression of the Sri-Lankan government.