Read With Us: It's An Interesting New Book!

Today's the day we announce a new Read With Us book for summer! You might already be aware of this if you were able to attend the last Zoom discussion for Trespasses, but now everyone will know. Would you like to read a book that won the Booker Prize in 2022? How about if the judges said the book "fizzes with energy, imagery and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars"? Who doesn't enjoy fizzy books? :-)

Our Read With Us summer book is The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. I personally think it has a wonderful cover, and while I haven't read the book yet, I am quite intrigued by the opening sentences:

“You wake up with the answer to the question that everyone asks. The answer is Yes, and the answer is Just Like Here But Worse. That’s all the insight you’ll ever get. So you might as well go back to sleep.”

Maali Almeida is a photojournalist that learns he is dead, stuck in the crowded and bureaucratic afterlife, and has one week to discover who killed him and publish a secret collection of photos that could bring down governments and stop wars. Don't let the setting of Sri Lanka dissuade you. The book was initially published as Chats With the Dead but struggled to find an international publisher. Many of them were afraid that Sri Lankan politics and mythology would be confusing to western readers. The author, Shehan Karunatilaka, tinkered with it for two years, so hopefully someone who knows nothing about Sri Lanka and eastern mythology (like me!) should be able to follow the story.

Kym, Carole, and I will be talking about the book, giving additional information, and doing promotional posts throughout July. Discussion day for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is scheduled for Tuesday, September 19, 2023, at 7:00 pm Eastern time, so mark your calendars. We'll ask questions on our blogs that day and then host the always fun, educational, and entertaining Zoom discussion.

The hardcover, Kindle, and audio versions of the book are all available from my library without any wait, and the audio version is available on Hoopla. The Kindle and paperback versions are inexpensive on Amazon, and I'm sure your local bookseller could order a copy for you if you're lucky enough to have a local bookseller. 

I do hope you'll read The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida with us. I can't resist a book with a great cover, dark comedy, tragedy, brilliant writing, and it's quite possible that I might even learn something.