New Zealand, 2017

Birnam Wood takes place exclusively in New Zealand. Although many of the locations are fictitious, Eleanor Catton based them on real locations in New Zealand, setting the novel in the country in which she was raised. The story mainly takes place in a national park and at an adjacent farm that the Darvish family owns. The characters spend some time in their own homes as well. Catton highlights the issues of the present day, including climate change, surveillance drones, social media, and the sparse materials needed for critical technology such as cell phones, thoroughly establishing 2017 as an important temporal setting.

Korowai National Park

The story mainly takes place in and around Korowai National Park, a fictional park based on the following real-world locations: Tititea/Mount Aspiring, Aoraki/Mount Cook, and Arthur’s Pass National Parks (424). Korowai National Park contains a fault line which provides cover for Robert...