Most years I pick one of the Man Booker prize shortlisted books to read in the run-up to the prize announcement, based on which book I like the sound of and which I think might actually win.

This year, I plumped for Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries. I chose it before I knew that it was 832 pages long, but no matter: it's times like these when the Kindle comes into its own. A Victorian novel is the kind of book I find easy to love; throw in a brilliantly plotted crime mystery, and the pages fly by. If this makes it sound like a traditional, even unchallenging, novel, that's far from the truth; but it is, in some ways, a good old-fashioned reading experience.

I found it refreshing and original, the narrative voice perfectly pitched for a story of new world pioneers. Some people have found the intricate, painstakingly worked-out plot too much – not me; the story really works.

It is also a book about capitalism, greed, and the moral depths that people will sink to when the opportunity of accruing immense wealth is put before them. For me, that spoke to the banking crisis and the impact on people's lives of unfettered financial markets. There are authorities, politicians and lawmen, in this book, and they can and do work for the good, but these men – and they are all men – cannot be relied upon; they are influenced by personal prejudices and the potential for personal gain and we are never certain which way their judgments will go. I identified with Anna Wetherell, the main female character, as she attempts to navigate this rapacious society, and to establish a place within it. In the final chapters I was rooting for her with my heart and soul.

Finally, and perhaps most of all, The Luminaries is a romance in the small, individual sense and in the broadest way, too, as beauty, hope and love battle to overcome greed and ugliness.