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)

300 page story in a 1000 page book.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not really. I don't know anyone who has this much spare time! This a nice story with some interesting characters, set in an interesting time in New Zealand. Unfortunately the author wants to dazzle us with clever prose and structure. It comes off as repetitive, pretentious and unnecessarily 'clever'. To me it comes off as a little hollow.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Luminaries?

The pursuit of Francis Carver by Chinaman Ah Kwee is an interesting subplot. Unfortunately we get it about 6 times.

What does Mark Meadows bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mark Meadows got me over the line. His performance is mind boggling. How he manages to keepa ll those characters going is admirable.

Did The Luminaries inspire you to do anything?

Listen to a shorter book next time...it goes for nearly 30 hours!

Any additional comments?

It's a nice little story. Pity the author could not hold back her ambition.

VERY ENGAGING; TOP NOTCH PERFORMERS!

Just buy this one. I knew nothing of New Zealand, and although fiction, the writer got a period piece as convincingly accurate as I’ve ever read. The acting is marvellous and enchanting with accents so real—English snobs, Irish-North and South—, Scottish and Eastern European; I found myself thinking of them in their accented characters when not listening.

Where’s “old Zealand”?

Would have been better to actually read

Great story, but there were lots of characters and many dates and such. It would have been a little easier to follow if I'd actually read it instead of just listened.

Phenomenal

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

This is one of the best books I've ever read, and, as a bibliophile, I do not say this lightly. Murder, revenge, love, deceit, betrayal, dastardly characters, innocent and charming characters; an epic, cinematic novel.

I have no doubt that Eleanor Catton's novels will become future classics, staples on every book lover's bookshelf. I have already recommended this to numerous friends, who are unanimously in awe of Catton's genius.

Listening to The Luminaries being read by Mark Meadows was an exquisite joy. Meadows as a narrator is unmatched, in my opinion. He switches seamlessly between a vast range of accents, the most impressive of which are probably Maori, Chinese, Norwegian, and German, although the spectrum of his English accents is amazing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Emery Staines. I've never read a character quite like him. You can't help but be charmed and bewitched by him.

Which character – as performed by Mark Meadows – was your favorite?

I loved listening to his performance of Harald Nilsson in particularly. Such a subtle accent.

Grew on me!

If you could sum up The Luminaries in three words, what would they be?

Compelling

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Luminaries?

Anna Wetherell and Emery Staines taking drugs together! The ending was sort of a shock when it happened; I didn't expect it.....not the action of the ending, just the end of the book. I didn't expect it to end when it did, thought I'd made a mistake in listening.

Have you listened to any of Mark Meadows’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't remember. He was terrific.

Who was the most memorable character of The Luminaries and why?

Anna. She was sort of a mystery all along. Some characters I just don't remember and/or what part they played in the story.

Any additional comments?

This book grew on me. I couldn't believe it would carry it self for so long, but in the end, it did. I MISS the characters; loved the main ones in particular, and had no idea I would. We traveled in NZ two years ago so knowing the geography (we were in all the places mentioned) was very fun. Also imagining a gold rush in a country other than the U.S. was interesting; I'd never read about one elsewhere. I was surprised whoring/a whore were so casually accepted there too. Also loved that Eleanor Catton, such a YOUNG WOMAN writer, could get into the heads of men like she did; brilliant, and, also that at her age she could write as insightfully as she did. Highly recommended despite the fact I didn't like it until probably the middle. I love audiobooks for that reason, I almost always give them a good long chance.

Mixed feelings

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

I would not recommend this audio book to most people. The story is long and convoluted. It gets a bit tedious over time. I would probably recommend a hard copy rather than an audio version as it is a little easier to keep things straight w/ a hard copy, as you can go back to check on previous story details more easily. The audio copy that I downloaded from audible was missing most of the last chapter. I down loaded it twice so I know it wasn't a download issue.

tremendous effort

but the convoluted plot becomes a detriment to the development of far too many characters.

Great characters and well read

What made the experience of listening to The Luminaries the most enjoyable?

The narrator's talent for accents and expressions. And of his the good material he had to work with.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Frenchman Gasgoine (sp? - I listened to it, not read it!) had a talent for cutting statements.

What about Mark Meadows’s performance did you like?

Great accents (except for his confused Maori accent - he could have just watched any NZ movie to get the idea - instead Te Rau sounded like an unwell Aborigine) and expressive performance. I haven't considered seeking out books read by a particular person but would do for this guy.

If you could rename The Luminaries, what would you call it?

Sphere within a Sphere, because the story rounds on itself so often.

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure the whole 'Signs of the Zodiac/Phases of the Moon' theme added anything to the book.

Narration SUPERB. Meadows makes story come alive

Mark Meadows is the best narrator I have heard ever (I go through about 3-4 books/month). He does accents and voices like I have never heard anywhere else. From brittish upper and working class, french, german, irish, scottish, chinese and maori to women and men with soft or strong or shrude voices - it is a pure joy to listen to nearly 30 hours of fictional tale.

The era, world and ambience that Eleanor Catton creates as the backrop for her story through an abundance of detail and use of old language and interesting charactees and dialogue kept me enchanted. How can someone write this well in their 20's, I wonder?

The only thing I struggled with was the slow pace of the story, and my own need to try to figure out how to categorize this book. I never really figured out how the title, coordinates, planets and signs fit into the plot...and was this a murder mystery, treasure story, love story, new age stuff...? Still, cudos to both Eleanor and Mark. Good job.

I loved this book!

The author created a vivid world peopled with interesting characters. The narrator was brilliant in bringing this world and these characters to life. Full of history, intrigue, love and twists and turns, it was a book I really didn't want to end.#intrigue, #australia, #tagsgiving, #sweepstakes