Literary Fiction

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1
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida follows Maali, a war photographer and gambler who awakens after his death in a mysterious afterlife. Set against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s violent civil conflict in the 1980s, the novel gives Maali seven moons—or seven days—to discover who killed him and to help the people he loves find a collection of photographs that could expose atrocities committed during the war. As he navigates a bureaucratic and chaotic realm of the dead, he encounters other spirits and gradually confronts the dangers he faced while alive. Karunatilaka combines supernatural fiction, dark humour, and political satire to examine violence, corruption, and the struggle to preserve truth in a society marked by fear. The novel explores the responsibilities of witnessing, the power of evidence, and the difficulty of achieving justice when the dead have been denied a voice.
Sri Lanka 2022
2
Untethered
Untethered
Ayesha Inoon
Leaving home promises freedom, but what happens when the life you find is more restrictive than the one you left behind? Zia secretly dreams of going to university, but growing up in a traditional Muslim family in Sri Lanka, she follows expectations and agrees to an arranged marriage with Rashid, a man she barely knows. At first, the security of family wealth and familiar customs softens the difficulties of their relationship. But when political unrest pushes the couple to immigrate to Australia, everything changes. Far from her family and the life she once knew, Zia faces isolation, financial hardship, and a marriage that becomes increasingly suffocating. The new country offers the promise of independence, yet visa restrictions and unfamiliar social expectations make building a life of her own far more difficult than she imagined. As she discovers friendship, experiences devastating loss, and begins questioning the choices made for her, Zia must decide whether she can find the courage to shape her own future. Inspired in part by Ayesha Inoon’s experiences as an immigrant Muslim woman, Untethered is a moving exploration of displacement, cultural expectations, and the complicated freedom of starting over. It asks what we must leave behind to discover who we truly are.
Sri Lanka Australia 2023