Shehan Karunatilaka discusses his Booker Prize winning at SIBF

At its heart a murder mystery but set during a very volatile period in Sri Lanka’s history, the author described his prize winning novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, as “the story of a man looking back on his own life and trying to solve his own murder”.

“My hope is that readers will ask: did it really happen? And that they will find it difficult to believe the events that unfolded in Sri Lanka’s devastating 1983-2009 civil war, which forms the setting of the book,” said the Booker winner at SIBF 2022.

“Though it happened in my lifetime, the 30-year war seems like ancient history now and there was a time when we thought the conflict would never end,” said Karunatilaka, who self-published his first novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. While the  2010 novel uses cricket as a device to write about Sri Lankan society, in his Booker-winning novel, a dead war photographer is given 7 days to solve his own murder.

The story idea for the book arose from debates and arguments about who is at fault for the multiple conflicts over the decades, he explains. “There were lessons to be learnt from the tragedy that unfolded but the focus was more on a blame-game. So, I thought, what if the victims could speak? What would they say? And that’s how the story shaped itself.”

Discussing how his choice of protagonist - a war photographer - came about, the writer said: “Having seen the same war photographs recycled over the years for memorial days in newspapers, I was struck by the thought of the unseen pictures that exists, and pondered if these would tell a different story or present new evidence of the catastrophic events of that period.”

The advertising copywriter turned novelist said despite the recent economic and political turbulence in his country, he is hopeful of a better future. “I am optimistic; I have hope in the young generation, in our future change makers. And I believe that the young generation should learn of their recent histories - to know that these should not be repeated.”

The Sri Lankan author, who writes from 4am to 8am every day, said: “A good set of pencils, good paper, a door that remains closed and no internet - these are the essentials when I write.” 
 
“The important thing is to keep going at it and rewriting till it feels right,” said Karunatilaka, crediting his editor Natania Jansz, a fellow Sri Lankan, for making the novel pacy and tighter with every rewrite and editing. 

“On reading it the first time, she told me it was terrific but added that it needs some work,” remembers the writer, and adds, laughing, “She said: ‘The beginning has to be rewritten, the middle is quite boring and the ending needs some work!”

“I am grateful for that advice, after two years of rewriting during the pandemic, I could notice the change, and all that hard work has obviously paid off!” said the Booker winner.