At 28 years old, Eleanor Catton is the youngest person to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction. But in her home country of New Zealand, it's not her age but her passport that has made her a national treasure overnight.

'This is a hugely significantachievement on the world stage for a New Zealander,' Prime Minister John Key said in a statement after news that Ms. Catton's second novel, 'The Luminaries,' had won the internationalliterary award.

Ms. Catton, who was born in Canada but raised in New Zealand, is only the second Booker laureate to hail from the small island nation. The first, Keri Hulme, won the prize in 1985 for her novel 'The Bone People.'

Set in 19th-century New Zealand during the country's gold rush, 'The Luminaries' is both a ghost story and a thriller. It spans more than 800 pages and is the longest book to have scooped the Booker, whose winner receives £50,000 (about $80,000). (Hillary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall,' which set the record when it won in 2009, was more than 600 pages.)

Its title refers to the astrological term for the sun and the moon, the brightest objects in the sky. Astrology is a central theme in the book, whose structure is dependent on the signs of the Zodiac.

On accepting the Booker at an awards ceremony in London, Ms. Catton described the novel as 'a publisher's nightmare,' noting that its 'shape and form...made certain kinds of editorial suggestions not only mathematically impossible, but even more egregious, astrologically impossible.'

Despite the author's youth, this is not her first literary achievement. Her first novel, 'The Rehearsal,' was longlisted for the Orange Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian's first book award in 2009.

Alongside writing her own books, Ms. Catton is a teacher of creativewriting at Manukau Institute of Technology in Auckland. Her colleagues and students, who watched a live feed of the award ceremony this morning on campus, were jubilant at the prize announcement.

'It's amazing, it's magic for Eleanor,' said Robert Sullivan, the institute's head of creative writing. He added that Ms. Catton's students have all had 'their sights raised' thanks to her achievement.

While Ms. Catton was born in Canada, she returned with her parents to New Zealand at the age of six. She grew up in the country's second largest city of Christchurch, attending the local university and gaining a bachelor's degree in English.

She then completed a Master's in Creative Writing at Victoria University of Wellington, whose press published 'The Luminaries' in New Zealand. Granta Books published the book in the U.K.

'We have been shaking with excitement all morning here,' Victoria University Press said in a statement.