LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize on Monday for his second novel "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida," about a dead war photographer on a mission in the afterlife. Set in 1990 Sri Lanka during the country's civil war, Karunatilaka's story follows gay war photographer and gambler Maali Almeida, who wakes up dead. This year's shortlist of Booker Prize contenders included British author Alan Garner's "Treacle Walker", Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo's "Glory", "Small Things Like These" by Irish writer Claire Keegan, U.S. author Percival Everett's "The Trees" and "Oh William!" "It is an entirely serious philosophical romp that takes the reader to 'the world's dark heart' - the murderous horrors of civil war Sri Lanka," MacGregor added. Past winners of the Booker Prize, which was first awarded in 1969, include Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Yann Martel.

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