Infinite Books

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.

BIRNAM WOOD, by Eleanor Wood, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023