#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






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