In "Birnam Wood: A Novel" by Eleanor Catton, the story revolves around a group of young idealists who form an organization called Birnam Wood, focused on planting gardens in abandoned properties. Their peaceful endeavors are disrupted when an enigmatic American billionaire, Robert Lamoine, enters the scene with his own agenda. The novel explores themes of power dynamics, secret agendas, and the consequences of greed and ambition, all while maintaining a fast-paced and suspenseful narrative with a satirical edge.
The plot unfolds in New Zealand, particularly in the town of Thorndike, where characters like Mira, Shelly, and Tony navigate complex relationships and conflicting ideologies amidst the backdrop of a deadly landslide and shady deals. As the story progresses, the characters find themselves entangled in a web of dark secrets, surveillance, and murky activities, leading to a thrilling and unpredictable climax that challenges the reader's perceptions and expectations.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of violence, psychological manipulation, and environmental destruction, providing a medium level of caution for readers.
Has Romance?
There is a low to medium presence of romance, primarily revolving around character dynamics and relationships.
From The Publisher:
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, Financial Times, Slate, The Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, The Telegraph
A Barack Obama Summer Reading Pick
"[A] savagely satirical thriller." -People
The Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries brings us Birnam Wood, a gripping thriller of high drama and kaleidoscopic insight into what drives us to survive.
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 ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?
A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. A brilliantly constructed study of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is a mesmerizing, unflinching consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.
Ratings (19)
Incredible (7) | |
Loved It (5) | |
Liked It (3) | |
It Was OK (2) | |
Did Not Like (2) |
Reader Stats (35):
Read It (19) | |
Currently Reading (1) | |
Want To Read (15) |
1 comment(s)
Was a very well written and compelling novel but the ending spoiled it for me.
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Birnam Wood: A Novel?
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