The reception of Sri Lankan literature in the Anglophone world — A case study of the Booker prize-winning novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Abstract

This article examines the readers’ reception of the 2022 Booker Prize-winning novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida among English readers in the world. Empirically informed by 6,194 English reviews posted online, this study draws on a corpus of online reader reviews and employs qualitative and thematic analysis to identify recurrent evaluative patterns. The findings show that the novel has been generally well-received by English readers worldwide. On the one hand, the positive reviews are centered on three aspects: its insight into Sri Lankan history, culture, and politics; creative writing and fantastic character portrayal, as well as strong humor and satire. Negative reviews, by contrast, converge on its abrupt shifts in time and heavy use of dialogue, too many characters and poor character development, too many brutal and violent depictions, and background knowledge of Sri Lanka’s history and politics needed for a good comprehension of the novel.