The 2022 Booker Prize Winner probably isn’t really my usual cup of tea – although having said that, from a certain angle, Karunatilaka’s book does resemble Haruki Murakami (one of my favourite authors). “The Seven Moons” is, I suppose, ‘fantasy’ of the gentlest kind, even if there is a rawness and violence about it. What I mean is that there’s an absence of dragons, goblins, spaceships, time travel (per se), far off worlds etc.
Label it ‘contemporary literature’ if you want too.
Above all, it is a ‘rattling good story’, well-written, with a mix of adventure, romance, threat, politics (all without the concomitant capital letters). Or it is “comic, macabre, angry”, as one quote on the back-cover blurb says.
Perhaps if you’re looking for a summer holiday read and want to try something different, then this could be for you – after you’ve chosen one of my own books, of course..!
Ian Gouge - Writer 