The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, a supernatural satire set amid a murderous Sri Lankan civil war, has won the Booker Prize.
The Sri Lankan writer’s novel is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of war.
Camilla, the Queen Consort, presented the prize, and the author said it had been “an honour and a privilege” to be on the shortlist.
Pop singer Dua Lipa was the star guest.
The prestigious £50,000 prize, for a single work of fiction published in the UK in English, also gives the other five writers on the shortlist £2,500 each.
The writer said he decided in 2009 to write “a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective” after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, “when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was”.
Head judge Neil MacGregor praised the “scope and the skill, the daring, the audacity and hilarity” of the novel, calling it an “afterlife noir” which “takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey through life and death”.
He said the judges’ decision had been unanimous, adding all of the shortlisted books were “all really about one question, and that is what’s the point of an individual life?”
Karunatilaka said as he accepted his prize: “My hope is that in the not-too-distant future… Sri Lanka has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work.
‘I have self-censored’
“I hope it’s in print in 10 years… if it is, I hope it’s written in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories, and that Seven Moons will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop, next to the dragons, the unicorns and will not be mistaken for realism or political satire.”
He later added that he had “self-censored” a couple of short stories after author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in August, having faced years of death threats for his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims see as blasphemous.
“I was in the process of publishing a collection of short stories when this incident happened, and I discovered a couple which I don’t think was offensive to any religion,” Karunatilaka said.
“But my wife said, can you not do that? You’ve got two young kids. This story is not that good. Just leave it out.”
He added that “this is something that hangs over all of us if we’re writing in South Asia, especially writing about politics or religion”.
Analysis on ‘dazzling’ winning novel
Where to start with this crazy, exuberant metaphysical whodunnit which is part murder mystery, part comedy?
Imagine combining brownies, trifle and doughnuts into one single cake and you might get the idea. But Shehan Karunatilaka mixes different genres so deftly that you end up with a rich, satisfying novel, rather than an overstuffed one.
The opening of the book sets the slightly absurd tone. It starts in the afterlife, which turns out to be bureaucratic and banal.
It then flips back and forth between the underworld and the real world during the Sri Lankan civil war in 1990 as Maali Almeida tries to work out who killed him – and why.
Shehan Karunatilaka says the book has been in his head for 10 years and goodness his brain must have been busy.
But he struggled to find an international publisher.
Winning the Booker will bring this dazzling novel, deservedly, to a much wider audience.
The Seven Moons of Maali is Karunatilaka’s second novel, having previously won awards including the Commonwealth Book Prize for his debut book Chinaman, which was called the “second best cricket book of all time” by cricketers’ almanac Wisden.
Born in 1975, the writer has also worked as an advertising copywriter, and his songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic.
MacGregor, a former director of London’s National Gallery and the British Museum, added that the judges read all 170 books put forward for the prize, then whittled them down to 30. They then re-read those, before deciding on the final six, which they read for a third time.
The other nominees were:
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Trees by Percival Everett
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
When asked by the BBC how many hours he had spent reading novels for the prize, MacGregor said: “I’ve been doing it almost every week since early December… It’s lots and lots of happy reading.”
President congratulates Shehan Karunatilaka on winning Booker Prize
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has congratulated Shehan Karunatilaka on becoming the second Sri Lankan-born author to receive the prestigious Booker Prize for his second novel, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.”
The Booker Prize 2022, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, has gone to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, a Sri Lankan writer also known for his rock songs, screenplays and travel stories.
The novel, Karunatilaka’s second, is a satire based in war-torn Sri Lanka, surrounding the life of a war photographer who goes on a journalistic mission in his afterlife. Karunatilaka will receive £50,000 as prize money.
The ceremony was held at the Roundhouse, a popular concert venue in London, and attended by Camilla, the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom, and singer-songwriter Dua Lipa.
Upon winning the award, Karunatilaka said, “My hope for [Seven Moons] is this: that in the not-too-distant future, it is read in a Sri Lanka that has understood that the ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work. I hope it’s read in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories and that this book will be in the fantasy section of a bookshop and will not be mistaken for realism or political satire.”
The Booker Prize is awarded annually to a book published in English in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The International Booker Prize — its 2022 edition won by Geetanjali Shree for her Hindi novel, Tomb of Sand, the first Indian-language work to win the prize — is awarded to a work of translation published in the same territories.
It is known to revolutionalise the careers of winners, with Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood and the late Hilary Mantel among many who became household names after their awards.
– Adaderana
ඊයේ කැමිලා පාකර් බිසවගේ ප්රධානත්වයෙන් ලන්ඩන් නුවර පැවති බුකර් ත්යාග ප්රදාන උත්සවයේදී බුකර් සම්මානය දිනුවේ ශ්රී ලාංකික ෂෙහාන් කරුණාතිලකයි. එය ලබාගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව කෙටි ප්රකාශයක් කළ ඔහු මෙසේ කීවේය:
“ලංකාවේ මා ජීවත්වූ කාලය පුරා රාජ්ය හෝ ඊට ප්රතිවිරුද්ධ වූවන් විසින් ඝාතනය කරන ලද මාධ්යවේදීන්, සමාජ ක්රියාකාරිකයින්, දේශපාලනඥයින්, පුරවැසියන් හා අහිංසක මිනිසුන්ගේ දීර්ඝ නම් ලැයිස්තුව කියවමින් මට ඕනවුණා මේ වැඩේ පර්සිවල් එවරට් (ඇමරිකා ලේඛක) පන්නයට කරන්න.
ඒත් මම එහෙම කළා නම් අපට මුළු රාත්රියම මෙහි ඉන්න සිදුවෙන්න තිබුණා. ඒ වෙනුවට මා හිතුවා, මේ කෘතියට පාදක වන කාලයේ, එනම් 1989 කාලයේ මරණයට පත්වූ රිචඩ් ද සොයිසා, රාජිනී තිරාණගම, දයා පතිරණ වැනි මේ කෘතිය තුළ විශේෂයෙන් සඳහන්වන නම් ටිකවත් කියන්න. ඒත් මා එහෙම කළොත් අපි හැමෝටම අපේ දුම්රිය මඟහැරෙනවා.
කොහොම වුණත් ද සෙවන් මූන්ස් ඔෆ් මාලි අල්මේදා වෙනුවෙන් මගේ බලාපොරොත්තුව මෙච්චරයි: බොහොම ආසන්න අනාගතයක – වැඩිම වුණොත් තව අවුරුදු දහයකින් – දූෂණය, සැලසුම් සහගතව ජාතිවාදය ඇවිස්සීම, ගජමිතුරු සංග්රහය වැනි දේවල් සාර්ථක නෑ, ඒවා කරලා සාර්ථක වෙන්න බෑ කියන දේ අවබෝධ කරගත් ශ්රී ලංකාවක මේ පොත කියවනු ලබනවා ඇති. (හොඳයි, මං හිතනවා පොත තව අවුරුදු දහයකිනුත් මුද්රණයේ තිබේවි කියා.) මා හිතනවා එහි තිබෙන කතාවලින් යමක් ඉගෙනගත් ශ්රී ලංකාවක එය කියවනු ලැබේවි කියල; ඒ වෙනකොට සෙවන් මූන් පොත පොත් සාප්පුවල සුරංගනා කතා පොත් තිබෙන කොටසේ, මකරුන් කඟවේනුන් ගැන තියෙන කතන්දර පොත් ළඟින් තියල තියේවි කියල
ඒ වෙනකොට මේ පොත ඇත්ත සිද්ධි හෝ දේශපාලන උපහාසය තියෙන පොතක් යැයි වරදවා වටහා නොගනීවි කියල.
ඉතින් මට මේ අන්තිම ටික ශ්රී ලංකාවේ මගේ මිනිස්සුන්ට කියන්න ඕන. මේ පොත මං ඔයගොල්ලන්ට ලිව්වේ. මේක දිනුමක්. අද ලංකාවෙ මිනිස්සු හුඟක් දුක්විඳිනවා. ඒ දුකින් මුදන්න මට ආයුද නෑ. ඒත් මේ ජයග්රහණය අපි පිළිගනිමු. ස්තූතියි, ජයවේවා.!”
