Les Luminaires - Couverture souple

'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

'Eleanor Catton is nothing if not ambitious. Her latest novel, longlisted for this year's Man Booker prize, is an 828-page blockbuster. With astonishing intricacy and patient finesse, Catton brings to life the anomalous nature of 19th-century New Zealand' -- Sunday Times

'Expansive and quite superb. Catton writes with real sophistication and intelligence... with intricate plotting and carefully wrought scenes' --Scotsman

'Every sentence of this intriguing tale set on the wild west coast of southern New Zealand during the time of its goldrush is expertly written, every cliffhanger chapter-ending making us beg for the next to begin. The Luminaries has been perfectly constructed as the consummate literary page-turner' -- Guardian

'An intellectual deconstruction and a remarkable act of literary ventriloquism that truly feels as if it has been written in the same spirit as its antecedents. Although I felt the need to gallop through the book in pursuit of some answer that would satisfy my increasingly painful curiosity, I found myself frequently slowing down to savour Catton's characterisations and gentle wit. The Man Booker judges have really struck gold' --Sunday Express

'For the scale of her ambition and the beauty of its execution, somebody should give that girl a medal' -- Daily Telegraph

'Carefully executed, relentlessly clever, easy to read... Catton sustains a human comedy that sweeps through the hope, the mud, the lies and the secrecy underlying gold fever. It is not so much a morality play as an astute celebration of the power of the story' --Irish Times

'The 2013 Man Booker prize-winner is, even in paperback, a hefty tome. Catton's irresistibly intricate plot makes the pages fly by. Snappy dialogue, crisp humour and grand vision sets this far above its rivals *****' -- Daily Telegraph

'Truly dazzling' --Paperback review, Sunday Herald

'An immense feat of structuring and plotting which means that this novel starts as a gentle stroll and ends with the exhilarating sense of running downhill ... Ambitious, intricate, spectacular' --Independent

'I enjoyed The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton's game of literary Cluedo so much I had to ration myself to 50 pages a day' --'Book of the Year', Observer

Nouvelle-Zélande, 1866. En pleine ruée vers l'or, l'île voit débarquer sur ses côtes tout ce que la vieille Europe compte d'ambitieux et de désespérés. Parmi eux, Walter Moody, un jeune Britannique bien décidé à faire fortune. Mais une étrange assemblée l'attend dans le petit hôtel où il a trouvé refuge. Là, douze hommes du cru tiennent une réunion secrète pour tenter d'élucider des faits étranges qui agitent la communauté. Un notable a disparu, une prostituée a tenté de mettre fin à ses jours, et on a découvert une immense fortune dans la maison d'un pauvre ivrogne, mort lui aussi. Moody succombe bientôt à l'irrésistible attrait du mystère et se retrouve plongé dans un entrelacs d'intrigues où la fièvre de l'or est reine.