The astonishing and epic second novel from the prize-winning author of The
Rehearsal - a sure contender for every major literary prize. It is 1866,
and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand
goldfields. On the night of his 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, which more than
fulfils the promise of The Rehearsal. Like that novel, 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-
twenties, and will confirm for critics and readers that Eleanor Catton is
one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.