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1866: A mid-19th century world of shipping and banking at the middle of the goldrush boom and bust
1866: A mid-19th century world of shipping and banking at the middle of the goldrush boom and bust
Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. .
“It had been raining for two weeks without reprieve. Moody’s first glimpse of the township was of a shifting smear that advanced and retreated as the mist blew back and forth. There was only a narrow corridor of flat land between the coastline and the sudden alps, battered by the endless surf that turned to smoke on the sand”
“The port was located to the south, tucked into the crooked mouth of the river, rich in gold, which became a lather where it meet the sale edge of the sea.”
Author/Guide Eleanor Catton Destination: Hokitika Departure Time: 1866
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