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Author: Karunatilaka, Shehan

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 6 April 2023 by SORT OF BOOKS in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 432 pages
129 x 199 x 29 | 334g

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023Now with added author content – a Map of Colombo as viewed from the afterlife + Dramatis PersonaeA magical realism whodunnit set amid Sri Lanka’s civil warColombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet gay, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s foremost author delivers a rip-roaring epic, full of mordant wit and disturbing truths. ‘Recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Gogol and Bulgakov.’ Guardian ‘Outstanding… the most significant work of Sri Lankan fiction in a decade.’ New European