The Phoenix Pencil Company

By: Allison King

Narrated by: Carolyn Kang, Jodi Long, Sura Siu, Crystal Yu

In this dazzling debut novel of love and secret histories, a young woman unearths the story of a lost Shanghai pencil company and a hidden family ability which will alter the path of her life forever.

‘Wildly inventive … Allison King is a talent to watch’ LIZ MOORE, author of The God of the Woods

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-confessed recluse, she finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and she worries about them – especially her grandmother Yun whose memory has begun to fade.

Monica has become intent on tracking down her grandmother Yun’s long-lost cousin, Meng, before it’s too late. In her search, Monica connects with a young woman archivist who presents her with a single pencil that holds a clue to a hidden family history. Through this discovery Monica comes to learn of her grandmother’s years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company.

As WWII raged outside their door, Yun and Meng came into a power unique to the women in their family: the ability to reclaim stories from the pencils they were written with. But when government officials uncovered their secret ability, they were both forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive. These shocking revelations set Monica on a path that will change all their lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

At once a sweeping family epic and a powerful love story with deep emotional resonance, Allison King’s brilliantly inventive debut novel pushes us to question how well we really know our own stories and the many beguiling ways they can connect our lives.

©2025 Allison King (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

'China, America, generations, and stories connect with literal magic in this suspenseful debut. Marvelous!' Gish Jen, award-winning author of The Resisters

'A beautiful ode to the warmth of family connection, the power of memory, and the magic of the written word' Ray Nayler, award-winning author of The Mountain in the Sea

‘The Phoenix Pencil Company is a masterful blending of history, fantasy, and romance that sank into my heart the way the magic of its pencils sinks into veins. King has written a stunning debut that pulses with love and loss, regret and forgiveness, and above all, the undeniable, painful, joyful pull of human connection. This book had me smiling through my tears’ Fonda Lee, author of The Green Bone Saga

'Like the emotion infused graphite hearts of the pencils in this tender novel, King has delivered an impressive juggling act of voices that made me feel like I was in on a secret – not merely hearing about familial connection, regret, betrayal, and finding the truth of one’s own story, but feeling these lives traveling within my veins. The Phoenix Pencil Company is a rare novel that unpacks the integrity and modes of how we form connections, both through graphite and magic and through digital highways, ultimately asking the question of what really matters when it comes to the people we love’ Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark