Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- We know Moody is technically the protagonist, but Anna and Emery actually emerge as the book's central figures by the end. In fact, the title is actually a reference to them; "the luminaries" are the sun and the moon, which are associated with Emery and Anna in the novel's, er, universe. Why do you think Catton waits until the end of the book to make them so central? What effect does that delay have on your understanding of the book as whole?
- Although Carver and Lydia are pretty much bad news for everyone else, do their characters ever move beyond "pure evil" status? Why or why not?
- The novel's "present"—i.e., the main narrative—ends about 100 pages before the novel does. What do you make of that choice on Catton's part—and the overall jumpy, solar-system centric, incredibly complex structure as a whole? How does it work with or help advance the book's themes?
- What do you make of the fact that Crosbie Wells's letters to Alistair Lauderback are dramatically different in tone and style from the way he sounds in dialogue, when we finally meet him?
- How exactly did Crosbie Wells die? Was he murdered?
- So, how did Emery Staines get shot?