Birnam Wood

eBook

English language

Published March 7, 2023 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

ISBN:
9780374718015

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (3 reviews)

Birnam Wood is on the move . . .

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He’s intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they’re poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their …

3 editions

reviewed Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood

5 stars

A+ political/environmental thriller about a guerilla gardening group that gets in over its head. Flawed, complicated characters, multiple perspectives, and interesting observations about New Zealanders and their country. Takes a sharp look at morality, working to change things, self-awareness/self-mythology, and relationships/power struggles. I thought the dialogue was particularly good. At one point, the group has a meeting where an argument starts, and it felt like I was in the room witnessing the verbal sparring. Kind of a crushing read overall for me, despite (or because of?) the satire/sense of humor. I did about 50-50 between actual reading and listening to the audiobook - great narration by Saskia Maarleveld.

Review of 'Birnam Wood' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This fascinating thriller takes its name from a forest featured in Shakespeare’s play McBeth. Like that famous play, this novel is populated with flawed individuals whose ambitions prove hard to balance with their morals. Accidents, deceptions, and cross purposes make for a complex, exciting plot.

In Eleanor Catton’s new novel, Birnam Wood is the name of a small nonprofit organization that seeks to plant crops in unused spaces, sometimes with permission, and sometimes not. There is certainly some lawlessness and trespassing going on, but the group’s members see it as a necessary evil in their mission to help those in need and to work for a more fair society. Before I read this, I was not aware of guerilla gardening.

There are four main characters in this book, plus two important supporting roles. Mira and Shelley are prominent members of Birnam Wood, and their relationship is complicated. They’ve been close …