The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida feels like familiar territory to readers of Neil Gaiman or Ben Aranovich. Maali Almeida is dead, and we follow him in his afterlife as he attempts to come to terms with his death and the influence that has on those around him. Less familiar to me as a reader from the UK, is the use of language and the politics of 1990s Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is in utter termoil at this point, utterly corrupt and internally terrorized by governmental and terrorist organisations. Maali up until his death was playing all sides, and then in death is still attempting to effect change. Reflecting the contradictions in Sri Lanka is the country's approach to queer culture. Queer culture is opressed in Sri Lanka, but rife - in the novel almost acting as a underground counter-culture to the opression of the Sri-Lankan government.

This was a cool read about the death and afterlife of Maali Almeida, a freelance photographer in Sri Lanka. Maali is a mostly unlikeable character who has a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time and always carrying his camera with him. He dies, we don't know how or why and we spend the bulk of the book jumping between his afterlife and flashbacks to when he was still alive. He's faithful to his friends, even if he doesn't always treat them well, and redeems himself to himself by the end. I liked the fact that it explores the idea of an afterlife that we're all mostly wrong about, yet still weaves in well known elements, such as ghosts, spirits and demons. I don't know much about Sri Lankan mythology, but it seems to draw from it.