If you are looking for a novel that combines environmental activism, ambiguous moral decisions, an evil billionaire, and plenty of twists and turns, this is it. The opening is a little slow, but don’t stop reading! Once Catton has the players on the board, the game is afoot!
Meet Mira, the de facto leader of Birnam Wood, a group of ecoactivists in New Zealand who do something sort of like Yarn Bombing, only with gardening plants. They find land that is not public, but that they feel might be better used, and they plant vegetables. Really. The group dynamic is starting to fray along with their finances, which are basically on life support, when American tech billionaire Robert Lemoine offers Mira a lot of money for a specific project on some land that he [almost] owns. The group goes along, with the exception of Tony, who is convinced that the ends never justify the means and that all billionaires are evil, in fact that their very existence is morally wrong.
When someone is killed at the site of their project (no spoilers), everything begins to unravel and Lemoine takes control of the situation and the cover up. The wildcard is Tony and his possibly off-kilter attempt to expose what he is sure is a massive conspiracy at the highest levels.
The writing is brilliant—Catton absolutely skewers both the Left and the Right for their hypocritical and self-serving messages. She makes the reader examine how individuals can have conflicting ideas about the world, even within their own minds. She forces the reader to think about what the options might be for going forward, who is responsible for the shape our planet is in, and what ought to be done about it—all while giving us a satisfying thriller, no mean feat. She lets the story do the work, because there is no preaching!
The characterization is refreshingly nuanced—no one, not even the billionaire is one-dimensional. In the end, all the loose ends are tied up, but probably not the way the reader might have predicted. This book is wonderful—entertaining and thought provoking at the same time.
If you want something that is both challenging and wickedly humorous, get it now.
