After Heartwood
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
If Heartwood gripped you with its unflinching marital discord amid ideological warfare and quiet betrayals, Birnam Wood will haunt with activist alliances crumbling under ego and resentment. Eleanor Catton's forensic character studies mirror that psychological depth, peeling back self-deception in flawed, petty individuals chasing unfulfilled ambitions. No tidy redemptions—just raw emotional realism in a world of moral ambiguity and social critique.