Birnam Wood is set in New Zealand, partly in Auckland, and it’s always exciting to read a book set in a place I know. The story is what happens when a guerilla gardening collective called Birnam Wood meets an amoral billionaire who is up to no good (typical amoral billionaire stuff). The characters are all a bit annoying in one way or another; still, the plot plots along at a good pace. But then it all ends with an abrupt cataclysm.
Like that. There is some justice perhaps, but the result is quite bleak and downbeat.
I am a bit disappointed with the style of the book. It all seems very ordinary and straightforward compared to the metafiction of Catton’s earlier novel The Rehearsal and the rich period detail and formal structure of The Luminaries. It was a decent page-turner but it’s not in the same league as the Booker prize-winner.