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New Zealand author Eleanor Catton has, at the age of 28, become the youngest ever winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Luminaries.
Her 832-page tale of the 19th-century goldfields is also the longest work to win in the prize's 45-year history.
"It's a dazzling work. It's a luminous work. It is vast without being sprawling," said Robert Macfarlane, chair of the judges.
Catton was announced as the winner on Tuesday night at London's Guildhall.
ELEANOR CATTON
- Eleanor Catton was born on 24 September 1985 in Canada and raised in New Zealand
- She has an MA in fiction writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters
- She currently lives in Auckland.
- Her debut novel The Rehearsal (2008) was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize, and longlisted for the Orange Prize
- It has since been published in 17 territories and 12 languages
- The Luminaries was published on 5 September 2013
The book, a Victorian tale set during the New Zealand gold rush, is intricately structured - with each section exactly half the length of its predecessor.
"You begin it and you think you are in the clutches of a big baggy monster," said Macfarlane, adding that what followed was an "accelerating, quickening tilt to the narrative".
"We have returned to it three times now and we have dug into it - to use its own metaphors - and the yield it has offered at each new reading has been extraordinary," he said.
The prize was presented this year by the Duchess of Cornwall.
The other authors on the shortlist were NoViolet Bulawayo, for We Need New Names; Jim Crace, for Harvest; Jhumpa Lahiri, for The Lowland; Ruth Ozeki, for A Tale for the Time Being; and Colm Toibin, for The Testament of Mary.
Crace had been the bookies' favourite to win, with Catton reported to have a late surge of support over the weekend.
Macfarlane said the judges' final decision was made after "just under two hours of pretty tough discussion".
Canadian-born Catton was raised in New Zealand and is the second writer from that country to win the prize. The first was Keri Hulme in 1985 with The Bone People - her first and only novel.
The Luminaries is the longest ever Booker winner, beating Hilary Mantel's 672-page Wolf Hall which won in 2009.
Macfarlane joked: "Those of us who didn't read it on e-readers enjoyed a full upper-body work-out."
Set in 1866, The Luminaries begins with Walter Moody arriving to make his fortune on the New Zealand goldfields. He stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes.
MAN BOOKER SHORTLIST 2013
- NoViolet Bulawayo - We Need New Names (Chatto & Windus)
- Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries (Granta)
- Jim Crace - Harvest (Picador)
- Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland (Bloomsbury)
- Ruth Ozeki - A Tale for the Time Being (Canongate)
- Colm Toibin - The Testament of Mary (Viking)
Moody is then drawn into a mystery involving a missing wealthy man, a prostitute who has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune which has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk.
Catton began writing the novel at the age of 25 and completed it when she was 27. She turned 28 last month. The previous youngest winner was Ben Okri, who was 32 when he won for The Famished Road in 1991.
"One can approach this as a murder mystery with séances, corpses, lawsuits and puzzles," said Macfarlane.
"It does require investment… but it operates like the best kind of goldmine. You pan and then the yields are huge."
The six shortlisted writers each win £2,500 and are presented with a hand-bound edition of their book. As winner, Catton receives a further £50,000.
This year marks the 45th year of the prize, which was won last year by Hilary Mantel for Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall.
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