Die Gestirne

Die Gestirne (The Luminaries), Eleanor Catton's Booker Prize-winning second novel, translated into German by Melanie Walz, is a vast mystery set during the 1866 gold rush on New Zealand's South Island.

Newly arrived prospector Walter Moody stumbles into a secret meeting of twelve local men, each connected in some way to a recent, tangled set of events: a wealthy prospector has vanished, a notorious prostitute has nearly died of an opium overdose, and a hermit has been found dead with a fortune hidden in his cottage. As the twelve men recount their versions of events, Moody — and the reader — must piece together a mystery of fortune, deception, and buried connections.

Catton structures the novel astrologically, with each of the twelve men corresponding to a zodiac sign and the book's own length and chapter structure waning like the moon as the narrative unfolds. Despite its unconventional architecture, the novel functions as a richly atmospheric mystery and character study of a frontier boomtown, and made Catton, at 28, the youngest ever Booker Prize winner.