The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The reviews had me intrigued, likening it to a mass confabulation that evaporates in front of us, like the waning of the moon.

The author's 'Note to the Reader' on the astrology of the book had me confused & apprehensive, wondering whether I was about to bite off more than I could chew.

But they were all smokescreens, albeit true, for a mysterious & enigmatic 'who-done-what' that ultimately dissolves into a sliver of a love story. And boy, was it thrilling!

Deserving of the Booker Prize, 832 pages flew by in a flurry of hat tips to the masters of the Victorian novel ... recognisably Dickens, George Eliot, Jane Austen, S.T. Coleridge & perhaps others. All the while delivering a gripping plot that comes full circle (or should I say orbit?) to a satisfying conclusion.

And who are the Luminaries? They are the sun & the moon, which when juxtaposed, create an eclipse. Even the cover of this book is clever!