Eleanor Catton is the second New Zealander to win the prize. Keri Hulme won in 1985 with her novel, The Bone People - another case of book sat on my shelf that I haven't yet got round to reading.
Catton apparently started writing The Luminaries three years ago and 872 pages later we have a Victorian murder-mystery set during the gold rush:
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 for someone still in her mid-20s, and will confirm for critics and readers that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.
Catton was up against, as always, a stellar line-up of novels and writers: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, Harvest by Jim Crace, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin and We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo. Although The Luminaries was not the favourite to win (Harvest by Jim Crane was considered the more likely candidate), critics seem to be pleased - that's got to be a first?
2013 marks the end of an era when it comes to the Man Booker Prize. Up until now the prize has been open to Commonwealth countries and Ireland only. Next year they're letting the Americans in... who knows if the Cattons and Mantels can stand up to the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Donna Tartr... we'll see. We'll also see if I ever get round to reading The Luminaries... I do hope so.
Catton was up against, as always, a stellar line-up of novels and writers: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, Harvest by Jim Crace, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin and We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo. Although The Luminaries was not the favourite to win (Harvest by Jim Crane was considered the more likely candidate), critics seem to be pleased - that's got to be a first?
2013 marks the end of an era when it comes to the Man Booker Prize. Up until now the prize has been open to Commonwealth countries and Ireland only. Next year they're letting the Americans in... who knows if the Cattons and Mantels can stand up to the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Donna Tartr... we'll see. We'll also see if I ever get round to reading The Luminaries... I do hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment