Eleanor Catton
Forfatter af The Luminaries
Om forfatteren
Eleanor Catton was born in Canada on September 24, 1985. She moved to New Zealand with her family when she was six years old. She studied English at the University of Canterbury and received a master's in creative writing at The Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. Her vis mere debut novel, The Rehearsal, was published in 2008. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. In 2015 she ws made an Honorary Literary Fellows in the New Zealand Society of Authors' annual Waitangi Day Honours. In 2016, she was named as one of six, Arts New Zealand's Laureate Award winners. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Værker af Eleanor Catton
Two Tides - story 1 eksemplar
Descent from Avalanche 1 eksemplar
The Man with a Load of Mischief 1 eksemplar
A pictorial history of Hokitika 1865-1885 : the town that inspired The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Victoria… (2015) 1 eksemplar
Doubtful Sound 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Fødselsdato
- 1985-09-24
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- Canada
Aotearoa / New Zealand - Land (til kort)
- New Zealand
- Fødested
- London, Ontario, Canada
- Bopæl
- London, Ontario, Canada
Auckland, New Zealand
Scotland, UK
Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK - Uddannelse
- Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Burnside High School, Christchurch, New Zealand
Iowa Writers' Workshop
Lawnswood School, Leeds, England, UK - Erhverv
- creative writing teacher
novelist - Priser og hædersbevisninger
- Adam Prize in Creative Writing (2007)
New Zealand Order of Merit (Member ∙ 2013)
Honorary Doctor of Literature, Victoria University of Wellington (2014)
Medlemmer
Discussions
2013 Booker longlist: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton i Booker Prize (februar 2016)
Anmeldelser
Lister
Movies/Shows (1)
Netgalley Reads (1)
Booker Prize (1)
Female Author (1)
Hæderspriser
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Associated Authors
Statistikker
- Værker
- 10
- Also by
- 1
- Medlemmer
- 6,290
- Popularitet
- #3,903
- Vurdering
- 3.8
- Anmeldelser
- 328
- ISBN
- 129
- Sprog
- 14
- Udvalgt
- 10
- Trædesten
- 799
I'm sure we all remember studying Shakespeare's Macbeth and most of us probably identified the title of this book from that play. In Macbeth the title character is told that he will only be defeated when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Since trees can't move Macbeth figures he is safe. But, indeed, Birnam Wood does come to Dunsinane because the advancing soldiers cut off branches to hide their approach to the castle and it looks like Birnam Wood is moving. So, what does that have to do with a book about eco-gardeners in New Zealand in 2017? The group's founder, Mira, came up with the name to identify the group with a concept of plants taking over where they haven't been found before. The group plants seeds and seedlings in disused public places and then sells or otherwise distributes the produce. Mira has the grand view for the group that it will become so established it will make enough money to support her and all the other gardeners. Meanwhile, her roommate and second in command, Shelley, is responsible for most of the grunt work and she's tired of that. She wants to leave but doesn't quite know how to tell Mira. Then in walks Tony, an original member of the group who has been away for a number of years. He had and still has a thing for Mira. Shelley figures if she can just get him to go to bed with her, Mira will be so upset she will kick Shelley out. There's just one flaw, Tony isn't interested in Shelley.Meanwhile, Mira is on track to take the group up to the next level. She hears of an abandoned farmstead near a landslide owned by the Darvishes. She goes there to check it out and finds that the property is about to be sold to an American billionaire. Robert Lemoine ostensibly wants to buy property to build a shelter in the event of a global holocaust. In fact, this is a cover story for his mining of an adjacent park for rare minerals he needs for his drone business. It's not quite clear why Lemoine wants Birnam Wood to be on the property but he offers to bankroll them as a pilot project. Tony is against doing business with Lemoine but the rest of Birnam Wood go along with it. Tony decides to investigate (he's a free-lance journalist) and runs across the illegal mining operation. Down at the farm things go pretty well until Lemoine hands out LSD and then a fatal accident occurs. Lemoine is very smart and figures he can cover up what happened. He also figures he can eliminate the threat that Tony poses. What do you think will happen? Let me tell you, it's nothing good but I was surprised by how bad it actually turned out.
In addition to my dislike of this book being nominated for the Giller Prize, I also found a lot of the explanations of the leftist politics of the Birnam Wood crew juxtaposed with the aggressive capitalism of Lemoine to be just too much verbiage. Really, how often do we have to listen to the polemics of either side to get the concept that they are polar opposites. On the plus side, if you read this book like a modern-day thriller you'll probably enjoy it.… (mere)