The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was sent to me as an alternative to my book club book as I already had a copy of what we were reading. I chose it because the Blurb sounded interesting. And found a book that will stay with me for a long time.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
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Publish Date
6 April 2023
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781914502071
The Blurb
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet gay, 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. At a time 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 try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka.
My Review of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
I was drawn in by the story of a detective type novel written in the afterlife. The main protagonist is already dead but he doesn’t know who killed him, if anyone, or how or where he died. He has a lot to figure out and doesn’t remember anything.
The afterlife is strange with ghosts mingling around live people and demons protecting or haunting them.
It’s not an easy read for several reasons. One is that the author is Sri Lankan and uses a lot of Lankan terms and talks about places. If you don’t know much about Sri Lankan be prepared to be googling a lot.
Another reason is the absolute horror that these people go through. It’s not so bad in the 90s where we find Maali and his dead body, but he has been paid to photograph horrific scenes of violence and torture of innocent people in particular during the pogrom of 1983.
I had to look this up and I was horrified to see what horrors this civil war caused between the Tamils and the Sinahlese people. If you want to know more you can Google Black July 1983. I was a teen in 1983 and had no idea of what was going on, news is much more prevalent now and these kinds of horrors continue right up until this day in other Countries. We close our eyes to the true horrors because it’s so hard. Here in the UK we live in our own little bubble but we are only one step away from such horrors ourselves.
But moving away from the horror and the politics (I was also googling LTTE and IPKF amongst many others) we have a man trying to find a way to expose the atrocities with his photographs and also find out who killed him and why.
He has a wife but he is only married to her for convenience, they sleep separately and share their home with his lover.
He sells his photographs to people who need them for different reasons. The pictures he takes sicken him but he does what he has to do to survive because he is also a gambler.
He remembers he needs to find some photographs to expose everyone but can he find them before the authorities. Then he needs to find the negatives. And he is give just seven moons to finish his tasks. Seven moons represent seven days (someone in the original waiting room that the moon changes every month not every day, but it’s explained that the moon is always there they have only the seven times it appears.)
I could write a lot about this book but I don’t want to give too much away. It’s a hard read as I have already stated but also because of the things he endures after life and the things he discovers about his life.
Will he find his photographs and negatives. Will he expose the bad guys? Will he have time? There are many twists and turns during the book and it keeps you wanting to read, even when you don’t want to. In the end it’s about love a loyalty and the truth. And what it’s like after you die. What happens when Maali’s seven moons are over, it’s his choice. I think it’s well worth the booker prize it won in 2022. (I’m adding it to my 2025 reading challenge as a book that’s won a literary award.)
I’ve just realised, I don’t normally like books where there are no real redeeming characters, but this book was an exception.
I had a hardcopy of this book but you can also get it in paperback and audio book
This sounds very interesting! Although it can’t be easy having to Google information while reading. I would definitely do that too! I’ve never heard of it before, which is surprising as it won the Booker Prize.
The blurb does sound good and the book sounds so interesting. Thank goodness for Google, helping with the understanding.