Shehan Karunatilaka

This book is both captivating and deeply disturbing. At the same time it is both violent and witty. Sri Lankan author Shenan Karunatilaka paints a vivid portrait of a civil war-torn Sri Lanka where government death squads are murdering people and dumping their bodies in the lake of the capitol city.

The story revolves around Maali Almeida a war photographer that has documented some of the most brutal scenes in recent Sri Lankan history. The story begins with Maali Almeida dead and given seven moons before he needs to choose to move towards the Light. During these seven days, Maali tries to help his friends to find his negatives of unpublished photos that will reveal the brutality and the government officials that are responsible. While doing so, he encounters a world filled with the ghosts of people who had been tortured and murdered.… (más)

Reason read: Booker TBR takedown
This is a 2022 novel by Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lanken/British). This book won the Booker in 2022. I listened to the audio through Hoopla Digital and it was excellently narrated. The description of the book is "searing satire set amid the mayhem of Sri Lankan civil war. The story is told by dead Maali Almeida, a photographer who sets out to solve the mystery of his own death and is given one week ("seven moons") during which he can travel between the afterlife and the real world. The death of Maali is gradually reviewed over the seven days and I thought this was an interesting way to learn about the civil war in Sri Lankan though it is not the only thing that is revealed. A good portion of this story looks at life of a gay man in a country that does not condone homosexuality.

I think the book did deserve to win a prize. It is an imaginative and well developed plot line. I don't generally like books with so much sexual content but this also is well done.

Because this story takes place in the afterlife, there is a great deal of what I suppose can be called magical realism or fantasy.… (más)