Novelist Eleanor Catton Talks Winning the Booker Prize

Posted on October 23, 2013

Booker prize winning novelist Eleanor Catton spoke to The Telegraph about her win, her anxiety during the process and how astrology is an essential part of the plot of The Luminaries. Eleanor is pretty open about her feelings noting that, "Winning feels awesome." But she suffered quite a bit from anxiety during the time running up to the awards. She said she only realized that she didn't have to worry about winning when she was at her publisher's party after the ceremony.

Eleanor also discussed how she approached writing The Luminaries. She says she has never approved of the struggle between plot and structure. She says that she has observed that if a novel is well plotted and lots of things happen, then it is usually regarded as not having a good structure. And if it had good structure nothing ever seemed to happen in the book and it was boring. So she challenged herself to write a book that had both a complicated plot and yet had a tight structure. It appears she succeeded. Take a look: