WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
'A breathtakingly ambitious mystery... As beautiful as it is triumphant' Daily Mail
An astonishing, epic story of promise, deceit and desperation in New Zealand's gold rush.
'What brings a fellow down here, you know, to the ends of the earth - what sparks a man?'
It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.
The Luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction, both a ghost story and a gripping mystery. Set amidst the promise, deceit and desperation of the mid-19th century goldrush, the lives of its rich, complex cast unspool through a labyrinthine, celestial pattern. Fiendishly clever, vividly rendered and made into a major BBC TV series, The Luminaries established Catton as one of the brightest stars in the firmament.
'A book to curl up with and devour, intricately plotted and extravagantly described, a pastiche of the Victorian sensation novel in the same smart yet playful vein as Sarah Waters' Guardian
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Eleanor Catton is the author of The Luminaries, winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize, and The Rehearsal. As a screenwriter, she has adapted The Luminaries for television, and Jane Austen's Emma for feature film. Born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, she now lives in Cambridge, England. Her third novel is Birnam Wood.
The astonishing and epic novel that won the 2013 Man Booker Prize
It is 1866, and walter moody has come to make his fortune upon the new zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. The luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction. It is full of narrative, linguistic and psychological pleasures, and has a fiendishly clever and original structuring device. Written in pitch-perfect historical register, richly evoking a mid-19th century world of shipping and banking and goldrush boom and bust, it is also a ghost story, and a gripping mystery. It is a thrilling achievement and will confirm for critics and readers that catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.
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