Shehan Karunatilaka wins the Booker Prize

The author was presented with his trophy by Her Majesty the Queen Consort in a new-look ceremony held at the Roundhouse, featuring a keynote speech by singer-songwriter Dua Lipa and hosted by comedian Sophie Duker. 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, published by the independent press Sort of Books (in India, the book has been published by Penguin Random House India), explores life after death in a noir investigation set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war. In Colombo, 1990, war photographer Maali Almeida is dead, and has no idea who has killed him. 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. 

Karunatilaka’s second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida comes more than a decade after his debut, Chinaman, which was published in 2011. 

Chair of Judges, Neil MacGregor, described the book as ‘an afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries not just of different genres, but of life and death, body and spirit, east and west’. In it, readers will discover ‘the tenderness and beauty, the love and loyalty, and the pursuit of an ideal that justify every human life’

Shehan Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan-born author to win the Booker Prize following Michael Ondaatje (1992). He emerged on the world literary stage in 2011 when he won the Commonwealth Prize for his debut novel Chinaman. Karunatilaka, who has also written rock songs, screenplays and travel stories.

^{Bespoke bound edition of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, the Booker Prize 2022 winning author, created by Designer Bookbinder Lester Capon. Photo credit: Booker Prize Foundation}

In an interview for The Booker Prizes’ website, he said he first started thinking about this book in 2009 after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, ‘when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was’ and decided to write ‘a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective’

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was first published by Penguin India as Chats With The Dead. This was also the first time that books originating from an Indian publisher had been nominated for the Booker Prize two years in a row. In 2021, Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North was in the running for the Booker Prize. Tomb of Sand, written by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell, and published by Penguin in India, was also the winner of the International Booker Prize 2022.

Manasi Subramaniam, associate publisher and head of rights at Penguin Random House India and the editor of the book, said, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almedia by Shehan Karunatilaka is a masterful work of modern philosophy that insists on being uproariously funny through all its deft acrobatics through the living and the dead. I am delighted that this brilliant book has won the Booker Prize 2022.”

Meru Gokhale, publisher, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India, said, “I am absolutely delighted at the honour and recognition being given to Shehan Karunatilaka’s work. It's wonderful to see writers from South Asia receive long-overdue international recognition in this extraordinary year for Penguin Press, through both the Booker International Prize for Tomb of Sand and the Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.”

Karunatilaka, who was born in Galle, Sri Lanka in 1975 and grew up in Colombo, said in an interview for The Booker Prizes’ website that “Sri Lankans specialise in gallows humour and make jokes in the face of crises […] it’s our coping mechanism”.

When asked at longlist stage how he felt about winning the prize, he responded: “To make any longlist requires luck […] to have a novel about Sri Lanka’s chaotic past come out just when the world is watching Sri Lanka’s chaotic present also requires an alignment of dark forces. Unlike my protagonist Maali Almeida, I don’t gamble. So I don’t expect to roll two more sixes, though I will scream with joy if I do.”

The winning book selection was made from 169 novels published between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 and submitted to the prize by publishers. The Booker Prize is open to works by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. 

The Booker Prize 2022 shortlisted titles were: Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo; The Trees by Percival Everett; Treacle Walker by Alan Garner; Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout.