Birnam Wood Audiobook By Eleanor Catton cover art

Birnam Wood

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Birnam Wood

By: Eleanor Catton
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
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About this listen

Birnam Wood is on the move...

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker - or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

©2023 Granta Books (P)2023 Audible, Ltd.
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Thriller & Suspense
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Loved The Illuminaries so was thrilled that this did not disappoint. Great story full of ideas and allegorical references. Brilliantly read by Saskia Maarleveld - marvellous to hear the NZ accent at full pelt.
A story for our times.

Catton continues streak

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It started a bit slow but I understood it was necessary to understand the characters and their motivations. The pace became more and more alert as the novel progressed with a satisfying ending. So different from the Luminaries, still very good.

Excellent Eco Thriller!

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A talent of unprecedented level, great story, characters that are relatable in their desires and their fragility, beautiful book

Fascinating, was totally immersed in it

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Started slowly but got really good. The author uses the characters to put across what are clearly her opinions, and it's done really well.

Persist through the first few chapters

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Took me a while to get into the spirit of it, almost gave up 30 minutes in, because the narrating was horrible. Eventually as the story and the characters developed, l slowly forgetting the terrible performance of the narrator. The story is great, good writing as usual.

Good story, narrator was a let down

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I bought the book without too much research based on the fact that it was about a gardening collective (sounds like fun!) called Birnam Wood (what a fun Macbeth reference!).
And then the book turned out to be really well written, and then it got serious, and then it got really dark in the end.

It also turned out to be a Booker winner and written by Elizabeth Catton.
Well, what a ride! It was a bit like going to the cinema to watch Hunger Games and being hit with the Schindler’s List instead. You have to understand that I also read a lot of genre fiction and my expectation kind of was that Birnam Wood is that.

In any case, what a beautiful, beautiful book, magnificently written and richly plotted. I’ve just finished it and I’m sitting here stunned - the kind of reaction that one only gets from the best.

What a ride. Amazing 3rd from Catton

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