The Mires

Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. In the near future, they become neighbours in a coastal town in Aotearoa New Zealand. Single parent Keri has her hands full with four-year-old tearaway Walty and teen Wairere, a strange and gifted child, who always picks up on stuff that isnt hers to worry about. They live next door to Janet, a white woman with an opinion about everything, and new arrival Sera, whose family are refugees from ecological devastation in Europe.

When Janets son Conor arrives home without warning, sporting a fresh buzzcut and a new tattoo, the quiet tension between the neighbours grows, but no one suspects just how extreme Conor has become. No one except Wairere, who can feel the danger in their midst, and the swamp beneath their street, watching and waiting..

Tina Makereti is a New Zealander of Te Atiawa, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Ngati Rangatahi-Matakore and Pakeha descent. Her novels include The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke and Where the Rekohu Bone Sings. In 2016 her short story Black Milk won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Pacific region.