Birnam Wood
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Birnam Wood
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Narrated by:
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Saskia Maarleveld
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By:
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Eleanor Catton
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Birnam Wood
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- magser
- 13-08-23
Gripping story, complex characters. But the end!
As some others have remarked, a puzzlingly abrupt and unsatisfactory ending. Otherwise, highly enjoyable.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Shedman
- 27-02-24
Fabulously intricate plotting if at times stretching believability.
The reader is superb as is the quality of the text. Sharp, full of drive and very evocative of character, place and action.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Matt H
- 13-02-24
Human, suspenseful story
I can see what it gets all the plaudits. And now another six more words.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- MoF
- 14-02-24
This Is A Slow Burner
I almost gave up on this as it is very slow at the start but I'm glad I stuck with it. Plot wise this was perhaps a tad far fetched but, in these times, who knows
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs R Hammond
- 08-05-24
OMG…that ending!
Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood sure does live up to its namesake. It’s a tense & suspenseful thriller with the most surprising & tragic of endings. I was shocked at first, but having had time to process it, I realise, like prophecy, it always had to end that way. A stellar performance from Saskia Maarleveld,
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ricci
- 29-12-23
I’ve a Feeling Some Images Are Gonna Stay With Me. Aargh!
Not a Who-Dun-It, more of a What’s-Being-Dun? A suspense, with plenty in it to keep me suspended. I was persuaded to read this book when I heard the author interviewed by Nicola Sturgeon at Edinburgh’s bookFest. It’s a gripping, dark drama; unusual setting; broad range of characters drawn differently and knitted … knotted together with intreague, then angst, then terror. I really liked it. I’m giving it 4 stars because (A) I reserve 5 stars for absolute brilliance; (B) I felt dissatisfied at the ending. I think I’d like another 50 pages in which the two or three remaining questions get the answer I want for them.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rhona Lyall
- 09-04-23
Good plot, abrupt end
Takes a while to get into the thick of it and then it’s over. The characters felt believable and the storyline is interesting, and a little different, but just as it was getting exciting it was finished. Can see this as a film.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-02-24
Enjoyable book, disappointing ending
The opposite of heartwarming. Enjoyable to listen to. Until the end. But maybe some books are not meant to make you feel good, but make you think about the world. Well read.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mrs D M Fotheringham
- 23-05-24
A Book of Two Halves
After a very slow and rather tortured first half with way too many political speeches by different characters, the book eventually got interesting. The 'thriller' element started with a very surprising event and from then on, it was a much more enjoyable read. I, like many others was not a fan of the ending, but perhaps anything less Shakespearean wouldn't have worked either.
Having loved the paper version of Catton's The Luminaries, I hoped to be entranced by this book too. I wasn't.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- P. J. Savidge
- 08-04-23
Ultimately disappointing
Extraordinary care in vocabulary and detail in descriptive writing, spoilt by express shock ending. Curious.
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