'A sense of lurking horror that will leave you troubled for weeks' - Sam Jordison, Guardian Book of the Year 2010. From the author of Not Before Sundown, this novel is a skilful portrait of the unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure and the primitive. A young Finnish couple go on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia with Heart of Darkness as reading material. The trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller with belongings disappearing and, even more mysteriously, reappearing. The travellers come to be at the mercy of untamed nature. Birdbrain reveals the dark side of the explorer's desire: the insatiable need to control, to invade and leave one's mark on the landscape. But what happens when nature starts to fight back?