Who am I? Reading a Booker Prize-winning book, when usually the idea of doing that would be something I would usually avoid. As a sort of reverse book snob, I always think that these books are probably a bit beyond me. However, the cover of this book was so beautiful that I could not leave it in the shop; I was not sure it was a book I would necessarily ever get round to reading, but I have picked it up, read it and enjoyed it.
However, once I started this book, and got the hang of how this story was being told, I could not put it down. This is such a fascinating book: a mystery and a whodunnit, but with so much social and political commentary about Sri Lanka at a time of civil war. Maali Almeida has died and appears to be in a waiting room before his full final fate is decided; however, he has seven moons to try and get a message to the two people he loves the most and hopes they can use what he can pass on to them to rock Sri Lanka to the core.
It is so beautifully written that it became an automatic page-turner for me. I could not put this book down as I was absorbed in the story of Maali Almeida, his relationships, his actions, his stories and the world that he was experiencing. There is so much amongst the pages of this book that I am not sure I can do it justice – and I also do not want to spoil the story for anyone else who may pick it up and want to find out more.
It has taught me that I should not judge a book by the prizes that it wins, but by the stories that it may have to tell. I may be surprised by the worlds that I can enter and things that I can learn.