The Luminaries

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 woman 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 and vividly rendered, 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

ELEANOR CATTON is the author of Birnam Wood (Granta, 2023), shortlisted for the Orwell Prize; The Luminaries (Granta, 2013), winner of the Man Booker Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award; and The Rehearsal (Granta, 2009), winner of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize, and longlisted for the Orange Prize. As a screenwriter, she adapted The Luminaries for television, and Jane Austen's Emma for feature film. In 2023 she was named as one of Granta magazine's Best of Young British Novelists. Born in 1985 in Canada and raised in New Zealand, she now lives in Cambridge, England.