The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Fizzes with energy, imagery and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars. ― The Booker judges

Recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls or Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita ... Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country's history ― Guardian

Brilliant ... rollicking ... a pleasure to read. Karunatilaka writes with tinder-dry wit and an unfaltering ear for prose cadences. -- Kate McLoughlin ― Times Literary Supplement

Outstanding ... the most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade ― New European

An exuberant whodunnit ...There can't be many novels that simultaneously bring to mind Agatha Christie, Salman Rushdie and John le Carré - but this one does ― The Times

This magic realist (and often funny) novel fizzes with energy and ideas... Imagine a mash-up of Stranger Things and Salman Rushdie -- Robbie Millen ― The Times

Shehan Karunatilaka's epic novel is a powerful evocation of Sri Lanka's dark and brutal past -- Lucy Popescu ― Financial Times

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is dazzling. Shehan Karunatilaka's use of Sri Lankan folk mythology is truly original ... human and non-human monsters equally terrify. And yet Karunatilaka's exuberant language and humour keeps this book buoyant and a joy to read -- Shyam Selvadurai, author of Funny Boy

A brave and brilliantly inventive novel, full of energy, about a mad bad world in a dark time -- Romesh Gunesekera, author of Reef and Monkfish Moon

Shehan Karunatilaka's narrative is breathtakingly kaleidoscopic ― Financial Times

Audacious, original and perfectly formed -- Suzanne Harrington ― Writers Mosaic

Shehan Karunatilaka is the multi-award winning author of Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is his second novel. Born in Colombo, he studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore.