Smart Money Is On Eleanor Catton For The Man Booker Prize 2013

by Michael West | 15 October 2013 - Contact Music

Who will win tonight's Man Booker Prize 2013?

Though Jim Crace is the favourite for tonight's Man Booker Prize for his final novel, Harvest, literary fans shouldn't assume that the judging panel - headed by Robert Macfarlane - will resort to tributes for the outgoing author. At 28, New Zealand's Eleanor Catton would become the prize's youngest winner and her novel The Luminaries is considered the most ambitious and entertaining of the year.

Eleanor Catton With Her Booker Prize Nominated 'The Lumanaries'

At over 800 pages, Catton's tome follows the story of the New Zealand gold rush. Its protagonist Walter Moody arrives in the country in 1866 to find a group of 12 men discussing a wealthy man who has vanished, a whore who has tried to end her life and a huge fortune discovered in the home of a down-on-his-luck drunk. Moody is drawn into the gripping mystery set in the gold-rush boom and bust of the mid-19th century.

In her review of the novel, The Guardian's Kirsty Gunn said, "...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."

The Independent's Simmy Richman wrote, "Yes it's big. Yes it's clever. But do yourself a favour and read The Luminaries before someone attempts to confine its pleasures to the screen, big or small. It may not be the thing to say these days, but this is a story written to be absorbed from the page."

Lesley McDowell of The Scotsman asked, "Where is the New Zealand Charles Dickens or George Eliot?" adding, "To even ask the question is an act of colonialism, imposing the values of one nation on another. All of which makes me wonder about Eleanor Catton's expansive, and in many places, quite superb, new work."
Catton is this writer's tip to take home the £50,000 prize at tonight's ceremony in London, though history tells us that none of the nominees can be discounted. Catton's The Luminaries and Crace's Harvest may be heading the market, though Colm Toibin's past Booker Prize disappointment reflects that of Julian Barnes.
More