Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton

This novel by Eleanor Catton, a Booker-winning author from New Zealand, is a literary thriller and a satire about a clash between eco-idealism and wealth. Set in New Zealand, the story pits characters from different ‘camps’ against each other: guerilla environmentalists vs. billionaires. While the author’s sympathy is with the idealist eco-warriors, she offers a clear-eyed view of their illusions and confusions. Tackling a rather daunting issue - the helplessness of environmentalists confronted with extreme wealth - the book is masterfully written and altogether quite unputdownable.

Birnam Wood is on the move…

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker – or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

NAMED AS ONE OF GRANTA MAGAZINE'S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2023 FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2023

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