The Luminaries
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3.8 • 811 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning novel, a breathtaking feat of storytelling where everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems ...
"A true achievement. Catton has built a lively parody of a 19th-century novel, and in so doing created a novel for the 21st, something utterly new. The pages fly." —New York Times Book Review
It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: a wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous cache of gold has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.
Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bust, The Luminaries is at once a fiendishly clever ghost story, a gripping page-turner, and a thrilling novelistic achievement. It richly confirms that Eleanor Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international literary firmament.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
New Zealander Eleanor Catton—winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize—is the youngest writer ever to receive this prestigious award. The Luminaries is an epic novel about a series of interconnected, mysterious events in a 19th-century gold rush town. Catton weaves her intricate plot with awe-inspiring historical detail and lovely small moments of humanity.
Customer Reviews
The Luminaries
Very well written, although a bit thick and difficult to get into at the beginning. Stick with it! This is a book with extraordinary detail at every level, with a twisted plot that starts in the middle, meanders to the end, and then double backs to the beginning.
slow to start, slow to part
Many months after reading The Luminaries I have retained the feel of it. Many of the characters will stay with me long after other books have faded from my memory.
Chaotic, difficult, unique
NOT an easy read. Although I will long remember the characters and the places.