The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Shehan Karunatilaka

Last year’s Booker Prize winner is the story of a week in the death of a Sri Lankan photographer. Stranded in some kind of purgatory, Maali has seven ‘moons’ in which to uncover the reason for his murder. And there’s no lack of suspects, from corrupt politicians to common thugs, gangsters to paramilitaries and terrorists. Karunatilaka paints a lively portrait of Sri Lanka in the 1990s, several years into a decades long civil war, with humour, pathos and an eye for the surreal. A worthy prize winner and a book that contains something for all types of reader.