A very original and engrossing new novel from the renowned author of The Luminaries. The story follows the activities of an eccentric tech billionaire Robert Lemoine who gets unwittingly involved with an ecological activist group called Birnam Wood. The group comprises quirky, unconventional, idealistic young members like its leader Mira Bunting, her second in command Shelley and disillusioned reporter Tony Gallo. The story starts off slow and then suddenly becomes a roller coaster ride. The characters are human and well-developed - they are neither all good nor all bad and you can't help develop a sense of empathy. The novel deals with very current topics like the faceoff between development and ecological degradation and the technological competition between the West and China. Be prepared for an all-nighter with major twists and turns. I could not put the book down till the end.

Thank you Farrar Straus and Giroux,, Eleanor Catton and Netgalley

I was excited to have the opportunity to read the eARC of Birnam Wood. Guerilla gardener thriller! Sounds like great fun, right? However, I was ultimately very disappointed. Although I feel rather badly about it, have received the title in return for an honest review, I just couldn't finish it. About half-way through, I realized that I really didn't like any of the characters (and in fact, disliked most of them!) and didn't care what happened to them. The characters seemed wooden, just cut-outs of familiar tropes. Too many books and too many other demands on my time, and so I gave up. I am, nonetheless, grateful to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Birnam Wood.

Set in New Zealand, a Gen-X guerrilla gardening collective, Birnam Wood, votes to work with a tech billionaire whose motivations are devious and hidden. The characters are well drawn, but irritatingly unlikeable. I found the first third of the book a bit of a slog, because I had no empathy with any of them, but the pace really picked up after that and it was hard to put the book down. The nods to Macbethad delicately woven through the story were a treat as well. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

Wow, this book will stay with me for a long time.

Mira and Shelley have spent their last few years working for Birnam Wood, a gardening collective with an activism spin. There is some tension between them and you can feel the closeness in their friendship. Tony has just returned from living abroad for years at the same time that Mira is trying to scope out a new site for their guerilla gardening. Mira has just met billionaire Robert Lemoine, who is interested in funding the group -- which for some goes against everything they stand for.

While I really wanted to like the main characters -- Mira, Shelley, and Tony -- I found I just didn't like any of them. They all keep doing things that made me want to shake them. Yet I was so compelled to keep reading, to find out more about them and their motivations, and figure out how they would get out of various situations. Robert Lemoine is a fascinating character, both charismatic and terrifying -- and the way he was portrayed felt so real to me.

For the first two-thirds of the book I felt intrigued and engaged but then it shifted and I could not put it down, I was eager to find out how it would all resolve and I definitely did not see the ending coming.

And now I only wish I had someone to discuss it with!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

3.5, rounded up. Catton's follow-up to the Booker-winning <i>The Luminaries</i> is a playful novel of ideas and a dark satire of politics piggybacked onto a eco-techno-thriller of online surveillance and drone warfare.

Set in New Zealand in 2017, the novel doesn't require local knowledge, but I was oblivious to the larger cultural and political context (and the fictional geography) Catton was gesturing towards. The first third is burdened with belabored exposition, slowly setting up the character dynamics within Birnam Wood, a millennial guerilla gardening collective, dominated by the earnestly ideological Mira and her ultra-competent frenemy Shelley, who had a short-lived dalliance five years ago with strident ex-member and self-styled investigative blogger Tony (if he were American, he'd be a Bernie Bro) returns after a long absence to denounce-- in a highly polemical diatribe against left-wing pieties and the impossibility of anti-capitalists ever escaping the ideological prison of capitalism-- Mira's agreement to farm a rural estate occupied by the Gen-Xer American sociopathic tech billionaire Robert Lemoine to build an apocalypse-survival bunker as cover for a highly illegal rare-earth mining operation that would make him a trillionaire, but the land is actually owned by the boomer exterminating services millionaire Sir Owen Darvish, who's seeking to greenwash his operation with a drone-based endangered-bird-conservation initiative.

As you can see from that very long and overstuffed sentence, there are wheels within wheels turning here, and the pace picks up in the novel's tightly-plotted second half. Catton gets deep inside her characters' heads, so that when their motivations come into intractable conflict, the fireworks felt completely natural even as the violence and tension ratcheted up to extreme heights, and the prose quality descended to pulp-fictional depths. Nodding to Macbeth, each major character makes ethical compromises to achieve what they envision as a noble goal, but slides down a slippery slope with further ethical compromises, leading to an explosively bloody denouement.

The pages turned, but I couldn't help thinking that this might have worked better as a limited TV series rather than a novel.

<i>Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review</i>.

I understand that Birnam Wood is a location in Scotland that played a role in Macbeth - but I don't know much about Macbeth, so it didn't trigger any memories of the plot for me. I had read a couple of Eleanor Catton's previous novels and is the reason I picked this one up.

Catton's writing is pleasurable to read and flows well. The book really didn't catch my interest until about halfway through though - I found the first part boring and tedious, and only the lyrical writing kept me reading. I'm glad I stuck with it though. The second half of the book was much more interesting.

I enjoyed the concept of guerilla gardening - the gardening's group name is Birnam Wood. I think they found a good use for neglected and underutilized land. I don't know if these groups really exist, but it seems a good cause. There's a billionaire supposedly building an end of times bunker in New Zealand, Robert Lemoine, who is doing some real damage under the radar. The Birnam Wood group has created a threat to Lemoine and things get way out of hand.

This is a good psychological thriller. Make sure you get through the boring part by telling yourself it is setting up information you will need for the much more interesting part.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on March 7, 2023.

The book concerns what happens when Birnam Wood—a radical gardening collective—votes to work with a tech billionaire whose motivations are questionable at best. That reaction is chemical, with an inevitable release of energy.

I was very much looking forward to reading this book, having enjoyed The Luminaries. While I can’t say I enjoyed the book in the same way, it certainly gave me a lot to think about.

I struggled with this book from the beginning. This began with the narrative voice, which was derisive and condescending. It felt throughout as if the narrator was not only speaking down about the characters, but continually speaking down to the reader. Take the rest of what I say with a grain of salt, because I suspect that much of the rest of this review will be a reaction to that narrative voice

Given the above and the fact that this book is self-consciously a Shakespearean tragedy, it’s no surprise that few of the characters are sympathetic. If the narrator despises the characters, what sympathy is the reader likely to have. (I did find one minor character sympathetic. This character is despised by the other characters, but is saved from the narrator’s critical gaze.)

I had trouble believing in the characters. This was not because I disliked them. Early in the novel, I felt that the characters were meant to be archetypes or to represent a certain philosophical point of view. Much of the dialogue could support this idea,. In the end, though, I saw the characters largely as objects of analysis. Almost as if the book contains a criticism of itself or a criticism of Macbeth or both. Although the characters motivations are explained and analyzed at length, they never really came to live as real, living human beings.

A great deal of time is spent on the characters’ politics. The question that is raised—without being answered—is whether it is possible anymore to be privileged and effectively political. Both the question and the lack of the answer come relentlessly (an unapologetically?) from a position of privilege.

To be fair, it is the previously mentioned sympathetic character that best represents today’s inclusive, representative and intersectional politics. Nevertheless, it is the eventual hero of the book (if the book can be said to have a hero) who rails eloquently against this character and the concept of intersectionality itself. The sympathetic character—seen as overly emotional and touchy by the other characters—seems to have been included only to speak briefly in a parody of voices one might hear on Twitter before being quickly sidelined. Although I don’t think “cancel culture” is ever explicitly mentioned, its specter looms large throughout the book.

All of this is to say that the main characters’ politics—decided left, but also decidedly and unabashedly privileged—felt tone deaf and left me deeply uncomfortable, which I suspect may have been the point.

I would rarely discuss an ending of book, but the ending is crucial to Birnam Wood. Given the title of the book and that we are repeatedly reminded where the title comes from, I don’t think the ending is meant to come as a surprise. Throughout the book, the reader is given hints that this is how things might turn out. I also didn’t feel the ending as any kind of a gut punch. Because of the narrative voice and the somewhat flat characters, the ending landed without any real emotional impact. It was more of a foregone conclusion than a shock.

This is a difficult and complex book. It is part political treatise and part critical analysis, both wrapped up in the package of a literary thriller. This is not something that is easy to pull off. Despite my reservations, I think Catton largely succeeds in this. This is not the type of book that I can say I enjoyed, but it made an impression. It’s one of those books that I will find my self thinking about for months to come. It certainly upended my expectations of Eleanor Catton.

I wrote the above to provide my honest reaction to the book. This review has not been published elsewhere.

I have a niche group of readers who will love this title. It was exciting from start to finish and I can't wait to recommend it!

I was so excited to read this novel as The Luminaries is one of the most interesting and unique books I have ever read (also assigned it to my book club not knowing the length. YIKES).

First off, the hat tip to Macbeth in multiple ways is something that Catton weaves in with care, not heavy-handedness. This book has many of the same characteristics that made me love Catton's works. Worldbuilding with incredible attention to detail. Complex and compelling characters. Plus an interesting take on environmental activism.

And while I knocked off a star because it had a really slow start (until Book II began I was ready to throw in the towel). But the last 300 pages are a "can't put it down" thriller. One of my favorite reads thus far in 2023.

I absolutely loved this. So much fun! Snappy thrillers aren’t often written so brilliantly, so it just felt like a treat.

I was not aware that my reading life was missing an ecological thriller about rogue gardeners in New Zealand… but alas, it WAS! This book hit the spot for me. I loved cycling through the various points of view, I loved the characters and how fleshed out they were, and I loved that I couldn’t have predicted the way everything came together. My heart was pounding by the end and I loved every second!

Not for me I’m afraid. This book didn’t read as well as I expected. I didn’t find any wit or drama, just a lot of ranting and whining.

Eleanor Catton is not just my fave Kiwi author, but one of my faves of all time. Like the Luminaries (5 stars), she writes such intertwined stories that draw you in. As the title suggests, the novel is Shakespearean in scope, and the woods they do indeed move as sort of symbolic goalposts do.

Do I like the characters? No; they are awful people. Am I in love with them? Yes! The billionaire, the pest control guy, the anticapitalist gardeners. They are all jerks but I found myself rooting for most of them as they deal with pending climate change in realistic ways.

Stunning prose that I will recommend to all my friends, family, and followers until they break down and read it, just like I did with the Luminaries.

A really complicated plot and in depth characters that were quite deep, Better after I got through the first part of World building. A bit political with strong philosophical views in the group of twenty-something’s gardening collective set in New Zealand. Not quite a crime fiction but has those vibes along with mystery and literary fiction. Recommend to readers that enjoy this mixed genre, just too far outside of my normal reading subjects.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy. All opinions are my own.

A psychological thriller that takes place in gorgeous New Zealand. Not for the faint of heart! I wish I could have identified with (any of) the characters a little more as I prefer to care about the people I read about!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC digital copy. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own.

The premise of Birnam Wood intrigued me with its eco-friendly plot. Unfortunately, the writing style was not to my liking. I appreciate parentheses (honest, I do) especially when it helps understand a character (by revealing their innermost thoughts), but it was simply overdone in this instance.

3.5 stars out of respect for the author and the fact that Birnam Wood is likely is just not the right book for me at this time. I may keep in on my "to be read" list and will update this review in the event that my opinion changes.

Set in rural New Zealand, Birnam Wood sets the stage for an environmental, psychological dooms day thriller. The reader is introduced to Mira, a leader of a gardening collective with leftist ideals that cultivates other people's lands without their knowledge. Their new target is a disaster laden area on the South Island where a farm has been abandoned. However, a billionaire American has laid claim to the farm and wants to prepare for the end times. A deal is made to allow the gardening group to use the land, but where the story begins is not where you ever think it would end.

Be prepared for long prose with lots of detail but also thrilling action sequences. Although the novel starts off slow, it does pick up and keeps your attention. The narrative jumps between the main characters, so it was interesting to see their different points of view.

Elanor Catton is an excellent writer. You just have to buckle up and be prepared to slog through some sequences to get to the good parts.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

Birnam Wood is a piece of environmental fiction that revolves around, well, Birnam Wood- an unregulated, sometimes criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective dedicated to extreme gardening on unused land. The group's founder, Mira Bunting, meets billionaire Robert Lemoine, who wants to purchase land near a landslide for reasons unbeknownst to most, leading to a deal that seems mutually beneficial. Other significant characters include Tony, an aspiring journalist, Shelley, who holds Birnam Wood together with her accounting skills, and Owen and Jill Darvish, owners of the land on which the story takes place.

The book is a mix of character development and action, beginning with the former and ending with the latter. The beginning entailed such a detailed introduction of characters and gradual build up, in fact, that I found the pacing to be almost agonizing. However, it's worth pulling through as the book builds up to a fast-paced climax that had me on the edge of my seat!

The environmental theme is well explored, and the billionaire's intention to build a doomsday bunker as well as his use of drones and anything and everything he has at his disposal is a unique aspect of the story. Although the ending may not be to everyone's liking, I found it to be the best part of the book as a whole. Birnam Wood is a well-written and thought-provoking literary thriller that raises important social issues, while leaving many of the answers to such questions up to the discretion of the reader.

Thanks so much to Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux as well as NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I absolutely loved this book. Very different from Luminaries and I think even better. Perfectly structured with twists and turns that come from character not contrivance.
A real page turner where every detail is impeccably set up and paid off in the most satisfying way. Did I mention that I loved this book.

Did you think that gardening was a peaceful activity? After reading "Birnam Wood," Eleanor Catton's latest novel, you will surely change your mind.

Birnam Wood is a clandestine gardening collective with a great idea: the group cultivates unused strips of land, abandoned construction sites, and such to grow vegetables. They are young, sharing their idealistic view of the world, although there is friction between the group's leader Mira, and Shelley, seemingly her devoted follower and relentless organizer. Then another person returns to rejoin the collective – Tony Gallo, a jaded, anti-capitalist, aspiring journalist.

It looks like they all found a pot of gold, accidentally meeting an American billionaire, Robert Lemoine, who recently acquired one-hundred and fifty-three hectares of land next to Korowai National Park in New Zealand. He is interested in supporting their young, vibrant initiative; the money would help move the group to a new level. However, something feels wrong. Greed, ambition, and mistrust slowly grow under the surface to finally bring the novel to the exploding, unexpected finale.

This book starts with beautiful, long sentences meandering through the protagonists' minds and actions. The plot is intriguing, and I haven't read a book I would savor as much as this one in a long time. I would call it an environmental thriller or even a horror. Eleanor Catton is exceptionally good at describing people's thoughts, and the characters are authentic – although not necessarily likable. At the story's end, I was immersed in it and flew through the last chapter.

What a ride this novel was! And on a deeper level, a cautionary tale, pointing out the difficult, if not impossible, relations between the big industry and environmentalists. The future of this fragile connection, especially considering how much people could differ in their motives and how deceitful or simply evil they can be, as shown in the novel, can quickly become Apocalypse.