The Mires - by Tina Makereti (Paperback)

About the Book

"Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. They eventually become neighbors in a coastal town in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Single parent Keri has her hands full with rambunctious four-year-old Walty and Wairere, a teen with a unique gift that allows her to connect to the world in extraordinary ways. Drawn to the waters of the indigenous wetlands, Wairere finds peace and solace communing with nature. Living next door is Janet, a sharply opinionated older white woman. New to the neighborhood is Sera, her husband, and their two-year-old daughter, refugees from ecological devastation. When Janet's adult son Conor unexpectedly arrives home sporting a fresh buzzcut and a disturbing tattoo, no one suspects just how extreme the young man has become-no one except Wairere, who can feel the danger pulsating around him. As friendship are formed, prejudices, too, arise, and discord surfaces between the trio of households, threatening to tear them apart. Their fate rests with young Wairere. By accepting who she truly is, the teenager can become the connective tissue that unites her community and helps them forge a better future together"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A literary page turner that explores the intertwined lives of three neighboring families in a small coastal New Zealand town--a blend of Little Fires Everywhere and The Island of Missing Trees, combining domestic drama, suspense, indigenous folklore, and the threat of extremism on ordinary lives.

Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. They eventually become neighbors in a coastal town in Aotearoa--New Zealand.

Single parent Keri has her hands full with rambunctious four-year-old Walty and Wairere, a teen with a unique gift that allows her to connect to the world in extraordinary ways. Drawn to the waters of the indigenous wetlands, Wairere finds peace and solace communing with nature.

Living next door is Janet, a sharply opinionated older white woman. New to the neighborhood is Sera, her husband, and their two-year-old daughter, refugees from ecological devastation.

When Janet's adult son Conor unexpectedly arrives home sporting a fresh buzzcut and a disturbing tattoo, no one suspects just how extreme the young man has become--no one except Wairere, who can feel the danger pulsating around him. As friendship are formed, prejudices, too, arise, and discord surfaces between the trio of households, threatening to tear them apart.

Their fate rests with young Wairere. By accepting who she truly is, the teenager can become the connective tissue that unites her community and helps them forge a better future together.

Review Quotes

"The clock of the natural world runs slower and wider than the one that ticks from our wrists and walls. Waters observe, they know, they are ever present. They rise; they recede. So sets the rhythm of THE MIRES and its examination of all we inherit and pass forward: culture, family, knowledge, and our environment. An ode to the push and pull, the ebb and flow of the boundaries of what we consider "our" community, this is a beautiful, tenderly rendered braiding of the many facets of love, malevolence, and human connection." -- Jasmin Hakes, author of Hula and Women of the Rock

"The Mires is a powerhouse--both a lyrical, passionate song in defense of our endangered natural world, and a propulsive thriller I could not put down! Makereti writes fearlessly with an open heart, bringing to life the extraordinary character of Wairere: a teenage girl with formidable powers and a desire to rescue her world. The water is rising...and this story of our possible future swept me away." -- Mona Susan Power, author of A Council of Dolls

"The Mires flows with both the beauty and danger of a river, sometimes plunging the reader into cold and unpleasant truths, but navigating them with depth and wonder. This is an important book, at moments rushing with anger and suspense, while at others meandering, allowing the reader time to reflect on the weight of the words that Tina Makereti delivers so elegantly. Beautiful and confronting in equal measure." -- Zoe Rankin, author of The Vanishing Place

"The Mires is an enchanting novel: poignant, earnest and lyrical, this story will settle in your bones." -- Maxine Beneba Clarke, multi-award winning author of When We Say Black Lives Matter and The Patchwork Bike

"As both a writer and a refugee, this book resonates with my experiences, skilfully addressing the link between refugee lives, colonialism and climate change." -- Behrouz Boochani, author of No Friend But the Mountains

"The Mires is about the monsters we've created and the power we have to stop them. A truly magnificent novel." -- Shankari Chandran, 2023 Miles Franklin winner and author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

"The Mires is a work of art. The impacts of colonisation, movement, and climate change cut to the bone in glittering prose and through characters kept close as neighbors. In The Mires, the environment speaks, culture transcends boundaries and the myriad ideas of home are bitterly defended. Only Tina Makereti could hold a reader in such tense tenderness." -- Laura Jean McKay, author of The Animals in That Country

"An immersive, unnerving novel about the hatred that can rise up out of the locked, curtained rooms in our neighborhoods, and the comfort that can be found in another's home. A story about people and the land they share. The memories stored in the water and peat. I read this book with equal measures of worry and hope." -- Becky Manawatu, author of Aue and Bones Bay