The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize.

Shehan Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan author to win the 50 000 pound ($86 000) Booker Prize. He was born in Colombo and is the multi-award winning author of Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is his second novel.

The novel is set in Colombo in 1990, and tells the story of Maali Almeida, a war photographer who has woken up dead in what appears to be a celestial visa office. He has no idea who has killed him and has seven moons to try to solve the mystery surrounding his death and to help uncover a hidden cache of photos that will rock war-torn Sri Lanka.

The Booker Chair of Judges, Neil McGregor, said: ‘What the judges particularly admired and enjoyed in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was the ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques. This is a metaphysical thriller, an afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries not just of different genres, but of life and death, body and spirit, east and west.’

Sri Lankan author Michael Ondaatjie won in 1992 for The English Patient.

The Promise by Damon Galgut was the winner of the 2021 Booker Prize.