#16 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka
Booker Prize : Winner 2022 Plot Time and Place : Present day Sri Lanka Opening sentence : "You wake up with the answer to the question everyone's asking". Plot summary : The story opens with the main protagonist, Maali Almeida, dead, in an afterlife that resembles a bureaucratic social service. He doesn't know who murdered him, and he sets out on a journey over the next seven moons to find his killer, and his lost photographs. Review : At first I thought this is not really my "kind" of book, as I'm not very much into humorous stories or magical realism, but then I got hooked on the story. It's funny and tragic and sad at the same time. And I learned a lot that I didn't know about Sri Lanka's recent history. Rating : 4/5