Catton wins Man Booker Prize 2013

Finally, after all the speculation, the winner is announced. Elanor Catton, at 28, is the youngest Man Booker winner in the history of the prize. The Luminaries also has the honour of being the longest ever winning novel at 832 pages. Catton is only the second New Zealander to win the prize.

The novel itself is set in 1866 during the New Zealand gold rush. The story revolves around a group of 12 men gathered for a meeting in a hotel and a traveller who stumbles upon them. The story goes on to involve a missing rich man, a dead hermit, a huge sum in gold, and a beaten-up whore. In effect this is a mystery involving sex, opium and lawsuits. The story is told through multiple voices and, eventually, what happened in the small town of Hokitika on New Zealand's South Island is revealed.

The book was described by Robert Macfarlane as a “dazzling work, luminous, vast”. It is, he said, “a book you sometimes feel lost in, fearing it to be 'a big baggy monster', but it turns out to be as tightly structured as an orrery”. He goes on to say that The Luminaries is a novel with heart, “The characters are in New Zealand to make and to gain – the one thing that disrupts them is love.”

Catton’s life will now change forever. She will be recognised as one of the great modern day writers and, for one so young, she should have a long, and hopefully productive, writing career ahead of her. It will be interesting to see how and with what she follows up this success!

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