Birnham Wood, Eleanor Catton
‘Each sentence is soaked in satire, wit, and a fierce intelligence, but above all, Birnam Wood is enormously fun to read.’
Birnam Wood is the third novel by Booker-Prize-winning, New Zealand writer Eleanor Catton, and it follows a committed environmental activist group, Birnam Wood, who plant crops on abandoned land. Mira, the group’s founder, states that ‘her ambition for Birnam Wood was nothing less than radical, widespread, and lasting social change.’ She decides to investigate an abandoned farm in Thorndike, a town which has been cut off after a landslide, as she sees potential opportunity in growing their gardening collective. Here, she meets American billionaire Robert Lemoine, who also has an interest in the property but for less honourable motives.
As Mira is lured in by Lemoine’s charming and seductive character and his suggestion that they join forces, she struggles between her ethical and moral values and her ambitious pursuits. It is from this conflict that the novel catapults forward to its dramatic and explosive ending. Birnam Wood has been described as a political and psychological thriller, but it is Catton’s social commentary that was the highlight for me. So astutely written, there is a playfulness to her writing that is so enjoyable to read.
The novel’s timely exploration of surveillance, technology, climate crisis, and corruption are both frightening and powerful, and Catton is able to explore wide-reaching themes and ideas while managing to maintain a light-hearted and entertaining mood. Each sentence is soaked in satire, wit, and a fierce intelligence, but above all, Birnam Wood is enormously fun to read.
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