The Luminaries

Anna Wetherell is a 21-year-old woman from Sydney who goes alone to Dunedin to earn money by following the goldrush. She is thin with pale skin and dark hair. Lydia tricks Anna into staying at her gambling parlor where Anna works as Lydia’s assistant and bartender. Initially, Anna is somewhat naïve and tends to speak her mind openly. However, after sleeping with Crosbie, she feels guilty and becomes less assertive. Her guilt leads her to become even more reluctant to challenge Lydia’s power over her. Partly due to her guilt and shame, Anna begins drinking, becomes addicted to laudanum, and later, to opium. Upon Anna’s arrival in Hokitika, she becomes a sex worker at Lydia’s direction.

Anna meets Staines on the boat from Sydney to Dunedin and they have an instant connection. Eventually, in Hokitika, they fall in love. Although Anna is quiet around most people, she is open and affectionate with Staines. The two of them share a cosmic, supernatural connection and events that impact one of them also mysteriously impacts the other. For instance, when Staines is trapped in a shipping container without food or water, Anna loses weight, too, despite eating.

At the beginning of the book, Anna is represented by the Sun in the