2022 Booker: Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins prize for 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida'

Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize on Monday for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, about a dead war photographer on an afterlife mission.

Queen Consort Camilla presented Karunatilaka with a trophy at the English language literary award's first in-person ceremony since 2019. He also receives a prize of 50,000 pounds ($56,810).

Karunatilaka's story is set in 1990 Sri Lanka during the country's civil war, and it follows gay war photographer and gambler Maali Almeida, who wakes up dead.

Time is of essence for Maali, who has "seven moons" to reach out to loved ones and point them to undiscovered pictures showing the cruelty of his country's strife.

During his acceptance speech, Karunatilaka said, "My hope for 'Seven Moons' is that it is read in a Sri Lanka that has realised that these ideas of corruption, race-baiting, and cronyism have not worked and will never work."

"I hope it is read in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories and that 'Seven Moons' will be in the fantasy section of the bookstore and not misunderstood as realism or political satire."

This year's Booker Prize shortlist included Treacle Walker by British author Alan Garner, Glory by Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo, Small Things Like These by Irish writer Claire Keegan, and The Trees by U. S. Elizabeth Stroutnand Oh William! by Percival Everett.

The head of the judges, Neil MacGregor, described Karunatilaka's novel as "a metaphysical thriller, an afterlife noir that dissolves not only genre barriers, but the limits of life and death, body and spirit, east and west."

"It is a completely serious philosophical romp that transports the reader to 'the world's dark heart', the murderous horrors of civil war Sri Lanka," MacGregor added. The reader will find there sensitivity and beauty, love and loyalty, and the pursuit of an ideal that upholds every human life.

Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Yann Martel have all won the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969.

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• Booker Prize
• Shehan Karunatilaka
• Sri Lanka
• 2022 Booker Prize