Details:
- author: Shehan Karunatilaka
- full title: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
- narrator: Shivantha Wijesinha
- genre: literary fiction, historical fiction
- topics: #afterlife, #politics, #warphotographer, #lgbt, #metaphysical
- publisher: Bolinda Audio
- publish date: 10 Nov 2022
- timing: 14:17:00
Winner of the Booker Prize 2022!
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
My Thoughts:
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida won the Booker prize last year, so I wanted to read it. I expected it to be good, and it was a pleasant surprise. I like unique books, and this one certainly was different.Maali Almeida, a war photographer, gambler, and cheater, just died and came to the afterlife. At first, he finds himself in a waiting room. Maali learns he has seven moons (days) here and, in the meantime, can go to places he visited while still alive. He wants to know what happened to him and who killed him. Each chapter stands for one moon.
I knew nothing about the events in Sri Lanka in the eighties, so, at first, I was confused. But this cleared out a bit at some point. The story dragged a little in the middle, and there were quite some characters, so it was difficult to follow all of them.
The novel deals with a rather difficult subject, but the author writes about this with special humor that makes the story easier to read. I also liked the narration of this audiobook. Shivantha Wijesinha handles many characters, distinctive voices and dialects very well.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a unique novel on more than one level. It is very imaginative. The second-person narration feels natural here, and I got used to it quickly. I would highly recommend the novel, but I suppose, as with many, it won’t suit everyone’s taste.About the Author:
Shehan Karunatilaka lives and works in Singapore. He has written advertisements, rock songs, travel stories, and bass lines. This is his first novel.
