Birnam Wood

Birnam Wood (2023) is the third novel from the New Zealand author and screenplay writer Eleanor Catton. Her second book, The Luminaries, won the Man Booker Prize in 2013, making her, at 28, the youngest recipient for the longest work of 832 pages.

Birnam Wood is set near a fictional national park on the South Island of New Zealand where a group of young activists named after the forest in Macbeth make a deal with an American tech mogul who appears to have purchased the land on which they mean to guerrilla garden. His stated goal is to create a bunker to survive coming natural disasters and he surprises them by offering funding. The book rotates through different points of view, revealing that each character has an ulterior, nefarious motive. Betrayals and revelations about the reality of the situation build toward an apocalyptic, fiery ending.

This guide refers to the 2023 First American Edition published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Content Warning: This book contains scenes of graphic violence.

Plot Summary

Mira Bunting, the 29-year-old founder of a guerrilla gardening group called Birnam Wood, finds a piece of property in Thorndike near the Korowai National Park that will be perfect for their next project.