New Zealand novel The Luminaries shortlisted for Man Booker Prize

Victoria University Press is thrilled at the announcement that Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries has made the short list of just six books for the prestigious Man Booker Prize 2013.

Eleanor Catton. Photo by Robert Catto.

Speaking from the United Kingdom where she is on a promotional tour, Ms Catton said, “I am proud that this shortlist will mean many more people around the world will have a chance to visit New Zealand, imaginatively speaking, and spend awhile in our historical past. 

“I think that New Zealand literature is in a very strong place right now–I'm especially excited about the writers of my generation–and I am happy that, whatever the outcome of the prize, the shortlisting will help to raise the profile of New Zealand literature elsewhere.”

Ms Catton’s New Zealand publisher, Fergus Barrowman of Victoria University Press said, ‘‘I love this book and I’m very happy that so many more readers will now discover the pleasures it has to offer them.”

Ms Catton was born in Canada and grew up in Christchurch. In 2007, she graduated from Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters creative writing course.

The Institute's director, Damien Wilkins, said, "There's the personal glory for Ellie and for her book, which is all thoroughly deserved, and then there's what can happen in the wake of individual success - other young New Zealand writers will see possibilities and risk things.

"Above all, Ellie is a risk-taker, because in lots of ways The Luminaries is a mad enterprise. We need more mad enterprises."

The Luminaries, a 19th century West Coast gold-rush murder story with a 20-part cast and a richly patterned structure, has been receiving glowing reviews internationally and in New Zealand. The Guardian called the novel ‘a dazzling feat of a novel, the golden nugget in this year's Man Booker long list'.

The Man Booker Prize 2013 is announced in London on 15 October. "I've never attended a black tie event before,’ said Ms Catton. ‘I'll have to buy a frock."

The Luminaries was published by Victoria University Press in August 2013.