The Butcherbird - A New Release, A Review, A Recent Read

Philip Rennie of The Bulletin casts his eye over The Butcherbird, the debut novel by Geoffrey Cousins. Now, Cousins is a familiar name in Australia's corporate industry having been CEO of such public companies as George Patterson and Optus as well as holding positions on the boards of 10 companies such as PBL and Telstra. So when his first novel is about corporate greed and corruption and filled with big, greedy, corrupt CEOs and board members it gets people thinking.

Actually, it has Rennie speculating on who the villains might be based on, whether Cousins had a particular person in mind or if he just crammed as many people together to form one (or two) evil corporate leader(s).

I'm reading this book right now and the same thoughts were shooting through my mind, particularly when the giant fictional company in Cousins' book is called HOA Insurance (HIH anyone?) From the outside looking in it's a corporate thriller but apparently Cousins considers the book a satire.

I'm sure there'll be more than 1 CEO eager to read The Butchbird (pub. Allen & Unwin) hoping to spot someone they recognise or at least, like to think they recognise...