Aotearoa’s most anticipated book release of 2023 has been Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, coming ten years after she won the Booker Prize for The Luminaries. A psychological thriller set in the South Island, Shakespearean in scope, a battle between good and evil – it has a complex intellectual core and also a great sense of mischief. Catton now lives in the UK, and between books has adapted both The Luminaries and Jane Austen’s Emma for the screen. She has returned to our shores to talk with Noelle McCarthy about what compelled her to write this epic romp through our national parks, with rareearth mining, deep surveillance, guerrilla gardening and so much more. Supported by Platinum Bold Patron Theresa Gattung.