Books & Writers · The Creative Process: Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Non-fiction Writers & Journalists Talk Writing, Life & Creativity SHEHAN KARUNATILAKA - Booker Prize-winning Author of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
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Aug 29, 2023 Shehan Karunatilaka, multi-award winning author, discusses the afterlife and meaning of life. He explores the motivations behind his book 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida' and the importance of addressing Sri Lanka's civil war. The podcast also delves into uncovering the true nature of life, exploring the identity of the complex character Maali Almeida, and the role of novelists in creating whole worlds and pursuing new ideas. It ends by discussing AI-generated novels, reading for young people, and hope for a better future.
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Choosing 1989 To Avoid Present Wrongs
- Shehan set the novel in 1989 because most perpetrators and victims from that period were dead, which reduced immediate political backlash.
- He researched unsolved murders and turned victims into speaking ghosts to explore that painful era.
Personal Reckoning Meets Political Witness
- Marley seeks both who killed him and to publish hidden photographs that might expose wartime crimes.
- The book links personal reckoning with political witness and the hope that truth can change public awareness.
A Chaotic, Bureaucratic Afterlife
- Karunatilaka imagines an afterlife that's chaotic and bureaucratic rather than instantly redemptive or fully revelatory.
- This disorderly vision makes death a complicated, morally ambiguous process rather than tidy closure.