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 …
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.
Supposedly this is a literary thriller, but there's a lot wrong and dumb about this.
The author really really likes run-on sentences.
This is not how hacking works.
The villain is the worst mustache-twirler.
His plot isn't how ultra rich people plot, with intricate conspiracies that depend on hiding all the facts. Rather, they do it in the open, with plausible deniability.
Twirler has to keep his purchase of a farm secret, when he could just buy it.
He randomly decides to possess a young naive trespassing gardener and fund her gardening collective in some sort of secret challenge grant makes no sense.
He supplies LSD to the collective for no apparent reason.
He does a bunch of these near the site of his nefarious plot for no good reason, endangering his plan.
Twirler changes the gate code for no good reason. The real reason is the author needed the victim to be walking alone at dark.
The kids' motivations feel somewhat authentic, but everything else about this book is irritating.
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.
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 …
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 for a long time, but at this juncture, Shelley is beginning to feel that it’s time for her to move on, and Mira is aware of this, and dreading it. To this end, Mira is striving towards her goal to prove that Birnam Wood can make a go of it, and eventually start paying the staff. However, for Shelley, this is not the only ambition. Shelley would also like to move out of Mira’s shadow.
A third important character is Tony, an aspiring journalist who is returning to the Birnam Wood fold after being abroad for a few years. Since he’s been away, and not experienced the hard work and frustrations of the past, he is appalled at the group’s newest venture, which he believes goes against all their principles.
This new venture involves a billionaire named Robert Lemoine, a middle-aged man who is buying a large swath of land to build a doomsday bunker–or so he says. Robert is a fascinating character. We don’t know how he got so rich, or exactly how he acquired his particular skill set. He meets Mira by accident, and immediately gives her permission to farm part of the land he is buying. Furthermore, he philanthropically gives her a lot of money, immediately.
The two other characters in this story are Sir Darvish and his wife, Lady (Jill) Darvish. It’s their land that is being sold. They have a good marriage, and Lady Darvish is proud of her beknighted husband, though she’s the smarter, more capable one.
When Mira reports back to the group about Robert’s proposal, everyone is impressed with her find, except Tony. He leaves the group, and it becomes his ambition to find out as much as he can about Robert Lemoine.
So, Birnam Wood sets up a camping site, and gets to work. Robert charms and wins over these new young friends. Tony googles, makes phone calls, and spies on them. Meanwhile, Sir Darvish becomes curious and pays a visit.
At this point, there are a couple plot twists, and things happen quickly. Both thought-provoking and riveting, this novel would make for an excellent discussion about both morals and the characters involved.
Bravo! I would recommend this to anyone.
Thank you so much to Netgalley for this wonderful experience.
