Eleanor Catton's THE LUMINARIES wins the 2013 Man Booker

Eleanor Catton's THE LUMINARIES has won the 2013 Man Booker Prize.

Eleanor is the prize's youngest ever winner, and THE LUMINARIES the longest book ever to win.

The Luminaries, set in 1866 during the New Zealand gold rush, contains a group of 12 men gathered for a meeting in a hotel and a traveller who stumbles into their midst; the story involves a missing rich man, a dead hermit, a huge sum in gold, and a beaten-up whore. There are sex and seances, opium and lawsuits in the mystery too. The multiple voices take turns to tell their own stories and gradually what happened in the small town of Hokitika on New Zealand's South Island is revealed. - See more at: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/and-winner#sthash.rk79BIE8.dpuf

The novel takes place in 1866, as Walter Moody comes 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, one which will confirm for critics and readers that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.

 

Post date: 
10/16/2013 - 10:56
Category: 
Books
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