The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds is the début novel from Gina Butson, a graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka / Victoria University and a former lawyer. The novel centres around a trio of backpackers, Thea, Sarah, and Chris, who connect in the town of San Pedro La Laguna in Guatemala, a hippyish tourist spot where ‘everyone was running from something’.

After attending a yoga retreat on her own, Sarah arrives in San Pedro to meet up with her boyfriend, fellow Australian Chris, who she met since travelling. Chris, who is ‘so comfortable in his skin, so confident in himself’, has a charisma that ‘pulls people in, including all the strays’. He has pulled Sarah in—as well as another roommate, Sarah is surprised to find. Thea is a reserved New Zealander and a budding mountaineer, and has a ‘need to keep moving from place to place, drifting like a piece of shipwreck on ocean currents’, having come to Central America to escape her past.

What could have unfolded as a predictable love triangle changes shape after some initial awkwardness, with Thea and Sarah finding common ground and developing a close friendship. In contrast, Sarah and Chris are an opposites-attract kind of couple. Sarah, ‘whose goodness can seal up the cracks and keep his darkness in’, ‘does sun salutations every morning while Chris is sleeping’. Chris prefers to stay out late partying and get up in the afternoon. Thea treads a middle ground, but finds herself feeling unexpectedly happy, noticing that for once, she is not ‘mapping an escape route.’ Sarah and Thea go hiking together, get henna tattoos, and take Spanish classes.

But as Chris prioritises parties over Sarah and his involvement in shady dealings deepens, tensions smoulder between the couple. Sarah turns a blind eye to Chris’ night time activities, but talks of moving on from San Pedro. Chris is resolute in wanting to stay indefinitely. Then, when tragedy strikes, Thea is drawn back to New Zealand, and on to Tasmania. In the years that follow, she is faced with reconstructing the fragments of her life into something new.

One of the book’s strongest aspects is in the landscapes that scaffold the narrative; from snowcapped Ruapehu, which ‘cuts a dark seismic line between earth and sky’, to the lush gradients of Guatemala, where ‘a crocodile’s back of dark green peaks ridged across the sky’, to the rugged hills of Tasmania. Butson evokes setting with lyrical detail, immersing the reader in rich, mountainous terrain that also serves the emotional landscape. The main characters are well-developed, real and nuanced. Sections from Sarah and Thea’s respective perspectives give the reader deeper insights into their motivations and anxieties, but Chris remains more opaque, in keeping with his cagey attitude.

When Thea dwells on her past, it is evident what a magnetic and ominous presence the mountains have been in her life, how their power has shaped her. But her trauma doesn’t press upon the present as much as it could; she isn’t as broken as she might be. When the reveal comes near the end of the book, it spans several chapters. This lengthy digression feels slightly unbalanced, but at the same time, it is one of the most powerful and evocative parts of the novel. The global financial crisis and COVID lockdowns add a cultural backdrop to the novel, but with no real impact on the story, feel underutilised.

The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds centres around our relationship with nature, with place, and with other people. The novel explores the way people come and go from our lives, the transitory nature and enduring impressions of relationships, but also of place. What it means to leave, return, stay, and what defines ‘home’. It considers the stories we tell ourselves, and the different versions of truth. Those million glittering worlds shining down are our lives reflected back: a million different possibilities, memories, connections.

Reviewed by Clare Travaglia