“What is the fundamental value of human life?”. This question went through six novels on his shortlist. This year’s booker, according to jury president Neil McGregor. A novel by a Sri Lankan author, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Shehan Karunatilakawon the coveted literary prize (and a matching prize of £50,000): a metaphysical satire set during the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) and starring a dead 34-year-old man.

His ghost, to be precise: the ghost of gay photographer Maali Almeida, who lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, until one day in 1990, he woke up dead in a kind of visa office, where obtaining the necessary documents means a lot of bureaucracy. Specifically, Almeida wants to leave her fast-paced afterlife and move on to the “light”. But to do so, he must figure out who killed him and why, which is tricky given the long list of suspects he can compile in a country mired in violence. He will need to travel to the upper world, meet two loved ones and lead them to a cache of civil war photos that will shake the country. Its term is seven days.

“The book takes the reader on a journey, both nightmarish and comical, beyond life and death, into the dark heart of the world, where, to our great surprise and encouragement, we find tenderness, laughter, faith and love.” Neil McGregor said at the awards ceremony, which was attended by Camilla Parker Bowles and pop star Dua Lipa, beloved by the young public.

The winner said he hoped Seven Moons would be read years later in Sri Lanka, which realized that “corruption, racial propaganda and clientelism have not helped and will not help. I hope that this book will be read by a Sri Lankan who has learned from his history,” Sehan Karunatilaka continued, “and I hope that it will be placed on the fantasy literature shelves along with dragons and unicorns, and it will not will be confused with realism or political satire. “.

Sehan Karunathilaka was born in 1975 and grew up in Colombo, worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies in London, Amsterdam and Singapore, and was also fond of music and literature. a journalist is looking for a cricketer. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is his second novel (to be published in Greek by Gutenberg) and also the second work by a Sri Lankan author (after Michael Odaatze’s The English Patient) to win the Booker Prize. It was published in England by a small publisher, Sort of Books, whose managers the author thanked when others dismissed his book as “weird, complicated, and bizarre”.