Birnam Wood

A modern book about climate change and respect for the earth that felt like the approachable literary fiction book it is. The characters are unique but recognizable if not identifiable, and complex. This complexity is not intimidating. Rather, it reflects how life is, and how critical issues like climate change and respect for the earth are also not simplistic. A rewarding read.

it can be read as a suspenseful eco-thriller but is also a serious literary novel that explores some complex themes. The novel has a slow start, but gathers pace. From the story of an undercover environmental group operating around New Zealand I learned more about the culture and geography of my adopted country.

This is an absolute page-turner with great characters, which also explores interesting themes of climate action and moral purity. The ending takes a bit of a left turn, but in a pretty thrilling way!

I’ll start by saying this: I read the last 25 pages of this book while hiding out in the bathroom because I was supposed to be preparing for a get-together—that I was co-hosting.

Just to give you a sense of the explosive, irresistible conclusion that this book lays the groundwork for, from page 1. The character sketches got in my veins, from the members of the guerilla gardening group (the narrator makes connections between personal growth and growing plants that I still think about often) to the billionaire villain.

In fact, the latter is so meticulously drawn by… show more.

Eleanor Catton was a Booker prizewinner with The Luminaries, a Victorian mystery. This very different follow-up, also set in her native New Zealand, pitches a group of "guerilla" gardeners, led by the idealistic Mira, against Lemoine, a venture capitalist. Both, for very different reasons, have plans for a farm abandoned by its owner after a landslip.

When Tony Gallo, aspiring journalist and former member of Birnam Wood, learns of the deal Mira has struck with Lemoine, he's dismayed that she's sacrificed the group's ideals and begins a dangerous investigation into Lemoine's activities.

The plot becomes truly nail-biting as… show more.

It is a remarkably well-written and cold-hearted contemporary literary ecological thriller. I mean "cold-hearted" in the best possible way; Catton is a gifted enough novelist not to get too attached to her characters, and she does what she must to pull this tense, well-constructed, beautifully balanced story off.

Set at the edge of a national park in New Zealand and featuring a highly memorable tech-billionaire villain, Birnam Wood is a vivid, substantive page-turner that manages to be both brutal and fun. I couldn't put it down!

I’ve always been confused by the longstanding misconception that thrillers can’t be thematically complex and literary novels can’t be briskly plotted page turners. Birnam Wood is one of many excellent examples of a book that accomplishes both.

Catton’s novel covers activism, climate change, class struggle, idealism vs pragmatism, and a range of other related themes all while moving at a cracking pace and unleashing a thrilling, pulse-pounding plot. Some characters are lying by omission, others for the sake of preservation, others for the sake of self-interest. The result is a deliciously deceptive story where you aren’t sure who to trust… show more.