The protagonist, Mattina Brecon, is a wealthy New Yorker whose husband, Jake, is a novelist struggling to follow up the success of his smash-hit debut.

Once there, Mattina rents a house on Kowhai Street, where, posing as a novelist, she sets out to record the lives of her new antipodean neighbours.

As Mattina begins to unravel the secrets of Kowhai Street she discovers, in her own bedroom a mysterious presence.

The novel is hijacked by one of Mattina's new neighbours who describes herself as an imposter novelist, as the New Yorker gradually loses her grip on time and place.

A dense, complex novel, The Carpathians combines elements of Magical Realism, postmodernism and metafiction.