The Novel “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with “seven moons” or a week to ask his friends and loved ones to find his photos and expose the brutality of the island's sectarian conflict. Accepting the prize, Karunatilaka said, “My hope for Seven Moons is this, that it is read in a Sri Lanka that has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work.”