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Birnam Wood
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's Summary
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.
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What listeners say about Birnam Wood
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- Anonymous User
- 21-04-2023
Great story beginning to end
We’ll written and beautifully narrated
Believable and interesting
Incredible end that took us quite aback
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- Louise
- 15-05-2023
Eleanor Catton is a genius
Just, wow.
She's done it again. This time with a gripping, twisty, modern-day thriller. Loved the insight and reflection scattered throughout (so rare in a pacey plot-driven novel like this). Couldn't put it down.
Superb performance too, so refreshing to have New Zealand names and Māori words pronounced correctly (thank you!).
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- Hope Sneddon
- 22-01-2024
profetic writing
lots of twists and turns and the plot points feel very topical for current discussions on climate issues.
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- Violet Clapham
- 04-02-2024
Great story, great narration
A real page turner, lots of twists and turns, awesome to hear a story set in Aotearoa. Narrator did a great job with all the different characters. Highly recommend
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- Danny Hatters
- 27-05-2024
Action packed story
A shortish book but well written and full of action. Had me thoroughly engaged and the plot had some high drama twists and turns.
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- Anonymous User
- 27-04-2023
Pop Culture Foray
No luminosity for me unfortunately - but I could be a philistine so try it for yourself
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- Anonymous User
- 12-07-2023
Not a fan
I found it very slow to start and a bit boring. Then it all got a bit implausible. Not my favourite book.
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- Anonymous User
- 16-06-2023
A bit morally simplistic
Enjoyed this, brilliantly narrated. The morals and themes are very childish though- the baddies are bad, the activists naive and vaguely irritating, not much nuance.
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- Kerry Muir
- 11-06-2023
Not what I expected - but wow!
Have been waiting for Eleanor Catton’s next book since reading the final (tiny) chapter of “The Luminaries”. This was SO different I almost every way but I loved it. Hope we don’t have to wait 10 years for her third.
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- Sophie Masson
- 18-06-2023
extraordinarily gripping
What an amazing story! Deeply-observed characters, deeply twisty story that slow-burned its way to a cataclysmically unexpected conclusion...the villain, sure, is rather a Bond villain diabolical sort, but still well-drawn and the other characters are very believably human, the Birnam Wood collective certainly reminded me of some countercultural groups I have come across, with muddled but genuine motives...irrirating in the extreme at times, with the diatribes on capitalism and consumerism and generational blaming, but still touching in some ways. And the descriptions of NZ South Island settings are very atmospheric. A real tour de force!
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