Harare Review of Books

386 pages.

First published on Aug. 4, 2022.

Genre: Fiction.

This first appeared in the Sunday Long Read, Nov. 27, 2022 — Issue #367

Seven Moons (also known as Chats with the Dead, from an earlier printing) is Shehan Karunatilaka’s 2022 Booker Prize-winning novel about the Sri Lanka of the 1980s, and mainly about the Sri Lankan civil war, which was from 1983 to 2009. It is written in the second person, and features ghosts, ghouls, pretas, devils, yakas, demons, and humans who stand in for, or are controlled by, all of those.

This will not be an easy read, for various reasons: the shifting viewpoint, the difficult subject matter, the body horror and gore of a country at war, the fact that the queer protagonist is dead (not really a spoiler, as this is revealed quite early on), and the complexity of the plot. There are some great supernatural battles, and two moving depictions of love—the romantic kind, and a deep friendship. There are also multiple bad guys, of all genders, on every side.

I enjoyed the complexity of the world Karunatilaka built, and his introduction to this version of Sri Lankan cosmogony and mythology, with its blend of many traditions, including Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist. My personal reaction to the book was that I found the details of war, being based on a true event, fairly traumatic; however, these details are essential to the story. My main criticism is that parts of the novel felt long and drawn-out.

So, content warnings for death, war, gore, and so on. This is still, however, an engrossing read, that is worth your time.

If you’re interested in related works:

• In a similar style: Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo (although I could not finish this).
• Equally fascinating mythology and world-building: The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by Amos Tutuola.