The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

The novel is set against the backdrop of Colombo in 1990, a time when Sri Lanka was torn apart by civil war, ethnic conflicts, death squads, and suicide bombers. The narrative explores the devastating absurdity of war, state corruption, and human cruelty, using a ghost's perspective to look at a country tearing itself to shreds

Shehan Karunatilaka is an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan author, born in Galle. He emerged as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost literary voices with his award-winning debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, which won the Commonwealth Book Prize. Renowned for his sharp, mordant wit, deep political insights, and surreal imagery, his writings have been published in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and The Economist

Set against the backdrop of the bloody Sri Lankan Civil War in 1990 Colombo, the novel is a dark, fiercely funny, and magical realist murder mystery. The story is uniquely narrated in the second person by the ghost of Maali Almeida, a cynical war photographer, undercover gambler, and closet gay man