I read Booker Prize winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka whilst on holiday in Sri Lanka, where it is set, and was swept into its world of both the Sri Lankan civil war, which I had been reading about whilst travelling around the island, as well as the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of this beautiful island, which it so readily conjures.

It begins with protagonist Maali Almeida, gay war photographer, waking up dead and embarking on a journey to come to terms with his life and death, whilst trying to secure a legacy that will wake up Sri Lanka and the world to the horrors of war. Bargaining with the system of the afterlife, Maali seeks out his parents, his lover DD, his friend Jaki and the various people who commissioned and bought his photographs, each of these with a seedy role in the civil war.

Following his life of meaningless sexual encounters, gambling, promises to DD he does not keep, broken relationships with each of his parents, and his addiction of returning to war zones to document the killings, you cannot help but like Maali, to wish he had not been killed and to want him to succeed in his quest and to find peace in the afterlife.

This is a book like no other and a well written tale that races along, immersing you in an island of contradictions, beauty and horror. An absolute must-read.