What’s peculiar with acts of insurgencies, pogroms, and civil war? Well, they paint a sordid tale of human suffering, blotched with patches of red filth strewn on streets, the unbearable stench of mutilated bodies crying in pain amongst piles of rotting carcasses, all in the pursuit of envisioning a righteous/egalitarian society at the cost of innocent lives. The perfidious power of our cerebral mind contorts and creates a belief system that people in authority deem fit and when driven by inept consciousness, it fashions bloodshed to usurp flailing egos.
War is gruesome, it stunts the economy of a nation and its repercussions are heinous. It creates this heavy, thick dense air, that’s ominous in nature reeking of torture, grief, and pathos. It leaves an indelible mark on society, shattering its core. The author Shehan in his book ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ breaks all the stereotypes and pens a fictional story of a gay photographer who finds himself entwined in the scheming political war of secession where his incongruent ideas fail to reverberate with the men in power who wield machinations of political governance.
This book predominately walks us through the lens of our main protagonist Maali Almeida, who wakes up dead in a world confounded with eerie, mysterious beings and finds himself in situations that are unduly of him in real life. He realizes he’s dead and has only seven moons/days to identify his killer and to get the pending task accomplished before he makes a transition from the in-between to the other realm (light). This book beautifully describes the world of the dead, especially the ones who were massacred during the Sri Lankan Civil war and portrays a tale of retribution for the ones who were brutally sacked to death by their perpetrators.
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The author does a commendable job of weaving an innocuous tale of life after death that’s beautifully cocooned with political satire. Our protagonist is unabashedly queer and has a lot of secret admirers, whose imperturbable demeanor is worth mentioning. The characters are flawed and relatable where one feels a sense of empathy when they unknowingly land themselves in trouble for all the wrong reasons. The uniqueness of the plot along with its gallant portrayal of characters makes it an immersive read.
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I loved reading this book right from the word go. How did Maali get entrenched in this chaos? Who killed him and for what? Will Maali achieve what he intends to in spirit within seven moons? What about his love life? Will he cross over? Well if these questions intrigue you, go and get a copy of this book, for it’s a firecracker and you’re going to love this one!