We are thrilled to have Shehan Karunatilaka, winner of the Booker Prize 2022 for the magnificent The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida come to town. This is a very special pop-up event with one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors who has dazzled the global literary world.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a searing, mordantly funny epic set amid the murderous mayhem of Sri Lanka beset by civil war. Set in Colombo in 1990, it’s the story of Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet queen, who has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office.

‘A rollicking magic-realist take…is messy and chaotic in all the best ways.’ ― The TLS

‘......dissolves the boundaries not just of different genres, but of life and death, body and spirit, east and west.’ ― Neil MacGregor, Chair of The Booker Prize 2022 judges

‘Comic, macabre, angry and thumpingly alive...’ ― The Economist

Shehan Karunatilaka speaks with Rijula Das about his scorching political satire. Unity Books will be there on the night with books for purchase.

About the author
Shehan Karunatilaka is the author of the award-winning Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, which was selected for the UK’s 2022 Big Jubilee Read selection. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is his second novel. Born in Sri Lanka, he studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. He currently lives in Colombo, which he says is currently an experiment in ‘net zero’.