Eleanor Catton Wins Booker Prize

Eleanor Catton began writing her second novel, The Luminaries, when she was 25. Now, at 28, she is the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize ever. This year's chair of judges, the writer and critic Robert Macfarlane, praised the maturity of the work, saying, “you read every sentence and you are astonished by its knowledge and its poise." Catton, from New Zealand, will be the last winner to compete against solely authors from the Commonwealth. Next year, American authors will also be considered for the prize.