Review Summaries

• Readers often praise the originality of its premise and its use of the dead as narrators. Some are unsettled by the chaotic structure and sharp black humour, but many remember the striking mix of violence and unsettling lightness.

Reviews

• 文章で描かれた抽象画

  1980年代のスリランカ内戦を舞台にした抽象画。報道写真家が内戦の悲惨な状況を細かく撮影しているので反戦争作品かと思ったが、彼が殺され、煉獄（現世と死の間), に放り出されそこでの行き方がメインに成る。ただしそこも現世とは変わらず、内戦、虐殺、賄賂、ギャンブル、女、ホモ等、に明け暮れ、写真家もその暮らしに明け暮れ、疑いを感じない。煉獄ではストーリーは無くただひたすら同じ虐殺等が繰り返され主題の7日目は終了では無く、輪廻の再生点と分かる。人物画、風景画の様に主題も無く、文章の各色の線と点が複雑に絡み合い際限なく繰り返される、抽象画です。英語で書かれた史上初の抽象文学としてブッカー賞に輝いたのだろうが、私には理解できない作品でした。ただしオーディオ版を聞きながらの読書は「不思議な力」で止めることが出来ず、最後まで読んだのはさすがブッカー賞作品ですか？

• Quantos escritores nascidos no Sri Lanka você já leu? Se a resposta é nenhum, tá aí uma ótima oportunidade para estreia. Apesar de ter sido escrito originalmente em inglês, o surpreendente As Sete Luas de Maali Almeida pode ser considerado um romance srilankês, pela origem do autor, e por que toda a trama e principais personagens são ligados ao país e a sua realidade. O Sri Lanka dos anos 1980, é o cenário perfeito para o caos, com sua mistura de crenças e influências culturais de portugueses, holandeses, ingleses, budistas, hinduístas, muçulmanos católicos e protestantes, tamils, burghers e lankas, envoltos numa guerra civil que durou trinta anos. Deste caos emerge a história individual de Maali, após seu assassinato, com seus amores e amizades de vida, tentando botar alguma ordem nos seus valores e lealdade, mesmo não sendo mais do que um fantasma. E a riqueza imaginativa na criação desse mundo pós vida, suas regras, hierarquias e personagens, é o que mais impressiona na obra.

• Absolutely loved this book. Rich tapestry of characters and ideas. Stunningly well written.

• Not the sort of thing that I would normally read. Nevertheless I enjoyed the main storyline and the period that the novel was set. I remember the Tamil conflict but I didn't realise how deep it went.

• Its rare that contemporary novels allow you to probe the meaning of your own life while providing deep insight into historical and painful events in a country you knew very little about. Add to that masterful writing, well-drawn characters with complex motives, and this is an intense, provocative and ultimately philosophically-rich novel.

• Book Review: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Author – Shehan Karunatilaka Publisher – Penguin India . What’s peculiar with acts of insurgencies, pogroms, and civil war? Well, they paint a sordid tale of human suffering, blotched with patches of red filth strewn on streets, the unbearable stench of mutilated bodies crying in pain amongst piles of rotting carcasses, all in the pursuit of envisioning a righteous/egalitarian society at the cost of innocent lives. The perfidious power of our cerebral mind contorts and creates a belief system that people in authority deem fit and when driven by inept consciousness, it fashions bloodshed to usurp flailing egos. . War is gruesome, it stunts the economy of a nation and its repercussions are heinous. It creates this heavy, thick dense air, that’s ominous in nature reeking of torture, grief, and pathos. It leaves an indelible mark on society, shattering its core. The author Shehan in his book ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ breaks all the stereotypes and pens a fictional story of a gay photographer who finds himself entwined in the scheming political war of secession where his incongruent ideas fail to reverberate with the men in power who wield machinations of political governance. . This book predominately walks us through the lens of our main protagonist Maali Almeida, who wakes up dead in a world confounded with eerie, mysterious beings and finds himself in situations that are unduly of him in real life. He realizes he’s dead and has only seven moons/days to identify his killer and to get the pending task accomplished before he makes a transition from the in-between to the other realm (light). This book beautifully describes the world of the dead, especially the ones who were massacred during the Sri Lankan Civil war and portrays a tale of retribution for the ones who were brutally sacked to death by their perpetrators. . The author does a commendable job of weaving an innocuous tale of life after death that’s beautifully cocooned with political satire. Our protagonist is unabashedly queer and has a lot of secret admirers, whose imperturbable demeanor is worth mentioning. The characters are flawed and relatable where one feels a sense of empathy when they unknowingly land themselves in trouble for all the wrong reasons. The uniqueness of the plot along with its gallant portrayal of characters makes it an immersive read. . I loved reading this book right from the word go. How did Maali get entrenched in this chaos? Who killed him and for what? Will Maali achieve what he intends to in spirit within seven moons? What about his love life? Will he cross over? Well if these questions intrigue you, go and get a copy of this book, for it’s a firecracker and you’re going to love this one…

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