One dark and stormy night Walter Moody arrives in Hortika, a Gold Rush town on New Zealand’s wild rough west coast. Here he stumbles across a  secret council, called to discuss a series of strange coincidences, to strange in fact to be mere coincidence.

The Luminaries had a thoroughly unique structure with the longest Part 1 in history of the novel, but it then picks up in a race towards the finish with a riveting court scene to boot. On top of all this great frontier drama, Catton explores the concepts of fate, destiny and predestination, which I found truly fascinating.

At times the novel appeared to be narrated by some sort of celestial being which added a really unique voice and I truly think this novel deserves to be read a few times for its intricacies to be fully appreciated. Having said that it is a thoroughly enjoyable read at face value as a immersive, detailed historical novel with finely wrought characters, an astonishingly atmospheric mystery novel.

-Steph @ Toombul QBD 

*The Luminaries was winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2013.*