Birnam Wood (novel)

Birnam Wood is a 2023 novel by New Zealand author Eleanor Catton. It is a psychological thriller set in the fictional region of the Korowai Valley on the South Island of New Zealand. The novel explores themes of environmentalism, capitalism, prepper culture, social media, and the complex relationships between individuals and the land.

The plot centers around Birnam Wood, a guerrilla gardening collective operating on the margins of legality, and their encounter with Robert Lemoine, an American billionaire with unclear intentions who arrives in the region offering them a seemingly irresistible opportunity to cultivate a plot of land recently made available by a landslide. As the novel progresses, the motivations and secrets of each character are gradually revealed, leading to a suspenseful and ultimately violent climax.

Catton, known for her Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries, employs a similar layered narrative structure in Birnam Wood, weaving together multiple perspectives and subplots to create a complex and unsettling portrait of contemporary society. The novel's title is an allusion to Shakespeare's Macbeth, specifically the prophecy that Macbeth will fall only when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. The use of this reference is a deliberate choice, foreshadowing the themes of ambition, downfall, and the potential for the natural world to disrupt human plans that are central to the narrative.