In a recent interview, Eleanor Catton spoke up for what she claimed was a neglected element in contemporary literary fiction: the art of plotting. ‘The moral development … in plotted novels where people make choices is fascinating and important,’ she told The Bookseller ahead of the publication of Birnam Wood, her first novel since The Luminaries, the winner of the 2013 Booker Prize. ‘I’d like to see more books like that.’

Birnam Wood certainly has plot. The novel centres on a group of young environmental activists (their name provides the title) on New Zealand’s South Island whose speciality is ‘guerrilla plantings’. They sow seeds on unused land, generally without permission, and then donate profits from the crops to worthy causes. When the lead member, Mira, hears about a former sheep farm going to waste in the fictional Korowai National Park, she sets out to explore its potential as a site for her brand of ethical trespassing.

What Mira discovers is more than just an opportunity for cultivating carrots and onions. Robert Lemoine, an American billionaire who made his money in drone technology, has acquired the property to serve as the location for the ‘luxury bunker’ from which he intends to see out the apocalypse. Lemoine,