Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton FSG pub 2023 432 pgs.

This “thriller,” as it is described on the cover, is not for the faint of heart. It is set in New Zealand in the present time, more or less, and is the story of a group of left-wing young people who are out to save the world. They have begun by planting vegetables on vacant lots, often illegally; their organization is called Burnam Wood, hence the title of the book.

The leader of the group is a strong-minded young woman called Mira; her second in command is Shelley. A third main character is Tony, the most extreme member of the group; the fourth is a super-villain who accidentally stumbles across the Burnam Wood activity. The first few pages of the novel are slow; there is a great deal of dialogue, skillfully done, but deliberately tedious; the reader feels like abandoning the whole thing. Then the pace picks up, until it is not possible to stop reading; the sobriquet “page turner” is an accurate and even literal description of this book’s style.

Intermingled with the political issues and with the main plot are side stories which add to the feeling of accuracy the reader absorbs. There is a romantic subset, having to do with the relationship between Mira and Tony, but it is by no means the main focus of the narrative. Other characters also come and go, notably Owen and Jill Darvish–or, as they might prefer, Lord and Lady Darvish. The advanced technology used by all the characters, most notably the villain, is almost a character in itself, enabling incredible maneuvering which leads to the climactic scene in the last few pages.

In a sense good wins over evil in this book, but only at an enormous cost. And on top of everything else, the villain is an American, which makes it that much more uncomfortable for readers like us. On the other hand, he is so vile that he is almost a caricature, while the young do-gooders are more believable in their well-intentioned naivete. The totality of the book feels like a piece of classical music, building slowly in a crescendo to a startling climax. Is it a good read? Yes, it is, but its suspense is far from the usual, and the reader is left with the haunting feeling that this sort of thing could really happen.