The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton
2013/848 pages
rating  9.5 / literary and historical

The setting for this marvelous,  page-turner (kept me up very late last night)  is  Hokitika, New Zealand circa 1866, during the gold rush there.  The first Part,  about half the book,   takes place in the Smoking Room of the Crown Hotel.   The rest of the book generally takes place in the same area and either earlier or later.

Characters – There are many characters and it’s very confusing for the first couple of chapters,  but then it straightens out as one or two (or sometimes more)  of them take part in each chapter.   There is a character list to refer to >>>>MORE>>>>