MCW Books

Winner of the inaugural Phoenix Prize 2023. See How They Fall is set in Australia, amongst the privileged Turner family. The novel follows the tragic aftermath of a dinner at the family's secluded compound, Yallambee. Through the eyes of two protagonists, Skye Turner, who has married into the dynasty, and…

Set against the stunning backdrop of a windswept island and its mysterious lighthouse, Rose Carlyle's second novel, No One Will Know, establishes her as an author in command of the page-turner. This thriller reveals the terrible consequences of greed, lies and fatal mistakes. 'No One Will Know is a breathtaking,…

Poto is the perfect fledgling – the apple of her father's eye and a natural at hunting and flying. Anything a kāhu is supposed to be good at, Poto can do best of all. She can't understand why her sister Whetū gets cross with her – it's not her fault…

Winner of the Allen & Unwin Fiction Prize 2023. After surviving a brutal attack, Auckland cop DS Honey Chalmers has returned to her hometown to care for her mother. The remote coastal settlement of Waitutū holds complicated memories for Honey, not least the tragic suicide of her younger sister, Scarlett.…

Singapore, 1951 When Josephina is a girl, her parents lock her in a room with the father of the boy to whom she's betrothed. What happens next will determine the lives of generations to come. New Zealand, 1984 Josephina and her family leave Sri Lanka for New Zealand. But their…

From the red soil of her garden in Southgate 1, a crowded suburb of Harare, Nyeredzi watches the world. She knows not to venture beyond the grasses that fence them off from the bush, where the city’s violent criminals and young lovers claim the night. But on this red soil,…

When Marnya immigrates to New Zealand from South Africa in 1953 with her mother and sister, her mother cuts off Marnya’s hair and changes her name to George to hide her identity as a girl. Hours later, their Christmas Eve train plummets into the Whangaehu River and George loses not…

Shortlisted for the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. This is the biography of the mighty ceremonial waka taua Ngātokimatawhaorua that rests on the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi. The inspiration for its construction came from Te Puea Hērangi. In the late 1930s the Waikato leader held a dream to build seven…

Winner of the Allen & Unwin Fiction Prize 2022. Mickey Bloom: five foot tall, dyslexic, and bullied at school. Mickey knows she's nothing special. Until one day, she discovers running. Mickey's new-found talent makes her realise she's everything she thought she wasn't – powerful, strong and special. But her success…

Shortlisted for the Book Awards for Children & Young Adults 2024. Book one in a startling new trilogy. We meet Merel, a girl living on a futuristic island in the middle of a sea. Many years have past since the community survived the floods and the severe heat that has…