Canadian-born Eleanor Catton wins Booker Prize

Eleanor Catton, a London, Ont.-born New Zealand author, has wonthe 2013 Booker Prize for fiction for her 832-page, gold-rush saga,The Luminaries.

Cattonreceived her prize Wednesday from Prince Charles' wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, at a dinner ceremony at London's medieval Guildhall.

At 28 years old, Cattonis the youngest writer towinthe prize.

• Five facts about Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton

Raised in Christchurch, N.Z. and now based in Auckland, Catton was recognized for her second novel.

A vast, complex, astrologically-themed tome set in the 1860s during the New Zealand gold rush,The Luminariesexplores a mysterious web of events including a murder, the attempted suicide of a prostitute and the disappearance of a man who had recently struck a fortune in goldthat a council of 12 men have gathered to solve.

Cattonused her acceptance speech to give to thanks to hereditors, her agent andher publishers Granta in London and Victoria University Press inNew Zealand for giving her freedom.

"I was free, throughout, to concern myself with questions not ofvalue but of worth. This is all the more incredible to me, becauseThe Luminariesis and was, from the very beginning, a publisher'snightmare," she said.

"The shape and form of the book made certain kinds of editorialsuggestions not only mathematically impossible but even moreegregious, astrologically impossible."

Founded in 1969, the 50,000 ($83,000 Cdn) literary award is officially known as the Man Booker Prize after its sponsor, financial services firm Man Group PLC. Considered one of the world's top literary honours for a single written work, the prize celebrates the fiction genre specifically and has until now been open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth countries.

• Man Booker Prize opens eligibility to writers worldwide

However, organizers recently announced plans to widen the field and extend the eligibility to all English-language novels published in the U.K., regardless of the author's nationality, beginning with the 2014 edition.

This year's other nominees were:

• American-born Canadian author Ruth Ozeki for her novel A Tale for the Time Being.
• Irish novelist Colm Toibin for the Bible-inspired The Testament of Mary.
• British-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri for the family saga The Lowland.
• Zimbabwe's NoViolet Bulawayo for the shantytown-set story We Need New Names.