From the Bookshelf of Around the Year in 52 Books …

The Luminaries

Eleanor Catton

Why we're reading this: 21 - A Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction winner or shortlist
[close] 21 - A Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction winner or shortlist

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Sep 17, 2013 Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: murder, country-small-town, missing-persons, pace-leisurely-paced, storyline-intricately-plotted, writing-style-descriptive, theft, tone-strong-sense-of-place, victorian, 19th-century

It's funny to read other Goodreads reviews of The Luminaries: it seems to be a very polarizing book, and, for the most part, the negative reviews make valid points. The zodiac symbolism, while insanely impressive, doesn't do much to enhance the book, and the structure can even come across as ostentatious. My book club was starkly divided on its opinion on the book, with half calling it brilliant, and half thinking it was a waste of time when the last 60 pages tell essentially the whole story. Ev ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 18, 2022 Nancy rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction, magical-realism, new-zeland

I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss was about with this book. I listened to it on audio (all 20+ hours of it) and about the only time I felt really gripped was about 3 hours before the end. Prior to that, it just went on, and on, and on setting up a story and some kind of mystery that just went...well, absolutely nowhere. There were far too many characters and there was far too little coherence to the story to make it enjoyable. Then add to it the fact it was so long it could easily have bee ...more

1 like · Like · see review