The Luminaries

By: Eleanor Catton

Narrated by: Mark Meadows

Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Longlisted – Baileys Women’s Prize 2014

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2013

Canadian Governor General's Literary Award, 2013.

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 12 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. 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 listeners that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.

Eleanor Catton was born in 1985 in Canada and raised in New Zealand. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University in 2007 and won the Adam Prize in Creative Writing for The Rehearsal. She was the recipient of the 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship to study for a year at the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop in the US and went on to hold a position as Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing there, teaching Creative Writing and Popular Culture. Eleanor won a 2010 New Generation Award. She now lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

©2013 Eleanor Catton (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"The Luminaries is an impressive novel, captivating, intense and full of surprises." (Times Literary Supplement)

"The Luminaries is a breathtakingly ambitious 800-page mystery with a plot as complex and a cast as motley as any 19th-century doorstopper. That Catton's absorbing, hugely elaborate novel is at its heart so simple is a great part of its charm. Catton's playful and increasingly virtuosic denouement arrives at a conclusion that is as beautiful as it is triumphant." (Daily Mail)

"It is awesomely - even bewilderingly - intricate. There's an immaculate finish to Catton's prose, which is no mean feat in a novel that lives or dies by its handling of period dialogue. It's more than 800 pages long but the reward for your stamina is a double-dealing world of skullduggery traced in rare complexity. Those Booker judges will have wrists of steel if it makes the shortlist, as it fully deserves." (Evening Standard)

good listen

good book with a narrative that keeps you listening. audio performance was also good but not the best.

The Luminaries

What a wonderful journey! This is definitely one of my all-time favourites. Magical, beautifully written and brilliantly conceived. So young and so talented.

and the wheel goes around and round

This story is told and retold slightly different while strongly the same. In spite of the multiple characters, Ms Catton's descriptions create clear distinctions avoiding confusion over who is who. The book is very different thanks to the distinctive writing style. Be warned: if you decide to listen to this book - it is very long and repetitive but there is no way it could be any different. I thought I was at the end only to realize that was not the case. I understand the story, the plot, the character and the achievement of the complex writing but I do not understand the end. So the wheel goes around again?

It was great until the last chapter

While this is definitely a book that falls into the ponderous genre, it still had just enough pace to keep me interested. It created a world that was full of detail and it seemed very real. Yet it is is not perfectly formed. When the last chapter finished I had to look at the paper version to see if something had gone wrong. While some may call the ending different, it has all the hallmarks of a student rushing a paper where they have run out of time. I was left dissatisfied.
To finish on a positive note, the reader of this book was excellent, getting the many accents spot on.

Great book made even better by epic performance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I found the audio book narrator, Mark Meadows, to be marvelous! His ability with accents and in particular his delicious interpretation of Lydia was inspired, and his excellent character distinctions did a great deal to help my own understanding of, and ability to differentiate between the many characters. Bravo, sir!

Any additional comments?

This is an exceptionally well-written book, but fair warning, it has a complicated, non-linear plot requiring (on my part) taking notes on the characters, places, times and relationships both revealed and secret between each of these elements.

Wow and wow again!

This story is a mesmerizing tale with twists and turns, betrayals and truths. I don’t know if I could have read it and kept track. The narrator is totally amazing. His portrayal of such diverse characters is a truly extraordinary performance. I recommend this audible book to all who enjoy the unraveling of a good story.

Enthralling!!

The voicing, the story, the fun!! This is one of my favorite audiobooks I've listened to, yet!

great historical fiction!

When I first listen to this story, I want site if I'd enjoy it. There's a lot of characters (hard to keep track of in the beginning) and they plot seemed dry... but as I kept listening the more intricately the plot began to unfold. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the narration. The plot is slowly peeled away in layers, from the perspectives of numerous characters. Very interesting and highly recommended.

Epic story

huge story lots of plots to follow, got lost a few times.
Beautifully written. huge amount of research & narrated quite brilliantly.

Great story well told

Where does The Luminaries rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best

What did you like best about this story?

The separate story lines build the tension but do not come together until the end so it holds your attention until the end.

What about Mark Meadows’s performance did you like?

Great narration although his pronunciation of some of the place names was unusual.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No I needed to come up for air occasionally

Any additional comments?

A great story told in a way that kept me fully engaged and interested until the end.