Birnam Wood

A Novel

By: Eleanor Catton

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

“Birnam Wood is terrific. As a multilayered, character-driven thriller, it’s as good as it gets. Ruth Rendell would have loved it. A beautifully textured work—what a treat.” (Stephen King)

“One of the finest writers of our time.” (Jonathan Ruppin, The Independent)

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.

©2023 Eleanor Catton (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

i like eleanor catton

i know her style is to be exhaustive in her narrative. all aspects of the characters are examined. (in words as its is a book). the story is an actual horror! wealth ecologic abuse. i only hope its a wild what if and not a roman a clef. suberb narration!!!!

Enjoyed until…

…the bizarre and abrupt finale. It almost felt like the author ran out of interest in the story and just had to find a quick way to finish. I had higher hopes for a creative resolution!

Excellent reader for implausible but (mostly) engaging story

I loved Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries. This one falls far short but the reader kept me engaged. Abrupt changes in sentiments of the main characters (from caring to callous to absurdly naive and back again) and the ending were the weakest parts for me.

Decent story but ended abruptly

The writing was excellent, storyline took a minute to get into, but was interesting and you came to like the characters. All of a sudden I have an hour left of the story, and I’m wondering how this will wrap up in only an hour. I think the ending could’ve been expanded a bit.

Just brilliant

Catton’s prose is nearly stream of consciousness while remaining 3rd person omniscient, unlocking a haunting, fast paced narrative that I didn’t want to end. The hidden, inner monologue of the characters’ complex politics, reminiscent of the film, Tár, unlocks and eerie sense of dread, and holds up a mirror to the reader, as the best writers do. Not only thought provoking but perfectly paced, and brilliantly executed. Birnam Wood sticks the landing and them some.

Disappointing

The personalities of the women are badly drawn and their interactions unconvincing. Other characters are cookie-cutter except Tony and the villain. It’s all plot, which is too far-fetched to be believable. The ending is hollow and too sketchily drawn, reminding me of a graphic novel.

Like Vol 1 of a 2 vol set

Enjoyable until the end when she seemed to simply run out of paper and pencil lea..….

Grumpiness

I purchased as it was highly touted by Stephen King. I really disliked all of the characters and the story was - all around unredeeming.

UN-Balanced

The set up is long and and a bit plodding because all of the characters, even the best ones, just aren't that well-drawn. I think intentionally so the reader cannot pull for anyone! The age/experience/wealth discrepancy between the not-so-radical, basically well-meaning, young, idealistic, essentially benign trespassers/food growers (and wannabe journalist) and the amoral socio-psychopathic American billionaire capable of vile evil to guard his treasures and less-than-admirable capabilities is too great for an effective moral tale or balanced tale between the not-so-bad-maybe-even-good and the dispassionate-horrific-evil. The convention of the rather dull landed gentry-couple to pull the pieces together is just that--a dull convention. Even the surprise for-all-that's-good-about-it ending is an overreach so a disappointment to me. I'm sorry, but that's my take.

Page turner!!!

Well-paced after a slightly slow start. Characters with realistic strengths and faults. Definitely recommend it.