First published 2023
Maali Almeida opens his eyes in what looks like a bureaucratic waiting room for the deceased. The war photographer, gambler, and secretly gay man discovers his body lies dismembered at the bottom of Beira Lake in Colombo. The year is 1990, and Sri Lanka bleeds from civil war violence. Death squads, suicide bombers, and assassins create a long list of people who might have wanted Maali dead. Vengeful spirits and bitter ghosts crowd around him, each nursing their own grievances. Maali faces a deadline that extends beyond death itself. He has exactly seven moons to reach the two people he loves most. He must guide them to photographs that will expose truths capable of shaking Sri Lanka to its core. Time moves differently in the afterlife, but it still runs out. Maali races against celestial bureaucracy and his own fading connection to the living world, driven by love and the need for justice.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deadline, ghosts, justice, love-story, race-against-time
Setting: Beira Lake, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Period: 1990
417 pages · Paperback · Sort of Books
Content warnings: death, violence, war