Birnam Wood is the name of a radical gardening collective set up by Mira Bunting but run on a strictly democratic and not for profit, basis. They take over abandoned, neglected, or donated spaces and grow produce for sale, barter, charity, or personal consumption. When a landslide in a national park in New Zealand’s South Island isolates an unused farm, Mira sees an opportunity to scale up Birnam Wood’s operations.
The farm owners, Owen and Jill (soon to be Sir and Lady) Darvish, are safely out of the way up north in Wellington, but when Mira arrives to surreptitiously scope the project, she finds an aeroplane on the airstrip; and the pilot finds her.
He turns out to be Robert Lemoine, an American entrepreneurial billionaire, who is negotiating for the purchase of the land. He’s an odd one, hard to trust, but seems happy to tolerate, even encourage Mira’s project. Mira needs to convince the rest of the group that this is Birnam Wood’s future. Her trusty lieutenant, Shelley Noakes, is in favour, but opposed is Tony Gallo, just back in town. He and Mira have history - unfinished business from when Tony left for the States a few years previously.
Tony’s interest in Birnam Wood is more political than horticultural; his ambition is to be an investigative journalist, and he smells a story in the offing.
The actual story, or stories unfold: Mira, Shelley and Tony a potential love triangle; Mira, Shelley and Robert ditto; Robert Lemoine and Owen Darvish, who is shafting whom in the deal; Lemoine and Darvish ripe for Tony Gallo’s probing; and what is billionaire Lemoine really up to?
All is revealed.
Catton’s prose is wordy but never dull, and the pace picks up as motives
emerge, distrust spreads, and tension rises to an exciting climax.
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