Inga Simpson

All in?' Kieran pulled me up, and the others followed. We gathered around the bigger tree. No one asked Matty - he just reached up and put his right hand on the trunk with ours. Kieran cleared his throat. 'We swear, on these trees, to always be friends. To protect each other - and this place.' Finding those carved trees forged a bond between Jay and her four childhood friends and opened their eyes to a wider world. But their attempt to protect the grove ends in disaster, and that one day on the river changes their lives forever. Seventeen years later, Jay finally has her chance to make amends. But at what cost? Not every wrong can be put right, but sometimes looking the other way is no longer an option.

Where the Trees Were

This is the story of a tree-change, of escaping suburban Brisbane for a cottage on ten acres in search of a quiet life. Of establishing a writers retreat shortly before the global financial crisis hit, and of losing just about everything when it did. It is also the story of what the author found there: the beauty of nature and her own path as a writer. A memoir about staying in one place, told through trees

A Life with Trees

Understory

Elsa Johnson

It's night, and the walls of Rachel's home creak as they settle into the cover of darkness. Fear has led her to a reclusive life on the land, her only occasional contact with her sister. A hammering on the door. There stands a mother, Hannah, with a sick baby. They are running for their lives from a mysterious death sweeping the Australian countryside. Now Rachel must face her worst fears: should she take up the fight to help these strangers survive in a society she has rejected for so long?

The Last Woman in the World

It s the summer of 1971, not far from the stone-fruit capital of New South Wales, where Mr Wigg lives on what is left of his family farm. Mrs Wigg has been gone a few years now and he thinks about her every day. He misses his daughter, too, and wonders when he ll see her again. He spends his time working in the orchard, cooking and preserving his produce and, when it s on, watching the cricket. It s a full life. Things are changing though, with Australia and England playing a one-day match, and his new neighbours planting grapes for wine. His son is on at him to move into town but Mr Wigg has his fruit trees and his chooks to look after. His grandchildren visit often: to cook, eat and hear his stories. And there s a special project he has to finish ... It's a lot of work for an old man with shaking hands, but he ll give it a go, as he always has.

Mr Wigg

Award-winning writer Inga Simpson terrifies and enthralls with this truly remarkable novel of a woman who must face her worst fears to survive and find beauty in the Australian bush. Fear is her cage. But what's outside is worse... It's night, and the walls of Rachel's home creak in the darkness of the Australian bush. Her fear of other people has led her to a reclusive life as far from them as possible, her only occasional contact with her sister. A hammering on the door. There stand a mother, Hannah, and her sick baby. They are running for their lives from a mysterious death sweeping the Australian countryside - so soon, too soon, after everything. Now Rachel must face her worst fears to help Hannah, search for her sister, and discover just what terror was born of us. . . and how to survive it. For fans of STATION ELEVEN, BIRDBOX and A QUIET PLACE, this remarkable, frightening yet ultimately hopeful novel holds a mirror up to the world we live in today.

Once an artist and teacher, Jen now spends her time watching the birds around her house and tending her lush sub-tropical garden near the small town where she grew up. The only person she sees regularly is Henry, who comes after school for drawing lessons. When a girl in Henry's class goes missing, Jen is pulled back into the depths of her own past. She lost her father and her best friend Michael when she was Henry's age. They also went missint - both in the same week. The whole town talked about it then, and now, nearly forty years later, they're talking about it again. Everyone is waiting - for the girl to be found and the summer rain to arrive. At last, the answers come, like the wet, in a rush - torrential, drenching, but ultimately reviatising - and the countryside delivers up its lost children. --Back cover.

Nest

'Storytelling at its best. I was enthralled' Sarah Winman (on Inga Simpson's Willowman) 'We haven't always lived like this . . .' Fin grew up by an observatory, learning about telescopes and planets, inspired by the passions of her parents, then leaders in their fields of astrophotography and astronomy. Those days are long over. Now Fin, her mother, Dianella, and a band of outliers live deep off the grid, always on amber alert and always ready to run. In the outside world, things are not good: extinctions and a loss of diversity threaten what's left of the environment. With a new disaster looming, Fin finds herself thrust into an unlikely partnership with a stranger who has appeared in their camp - one of a new breed of evolved humans, the Incompletes, who are widely distrusted. But the pair will need to work together during a dangerous journey if they are to play their part in an audacious plan to help restore the natural world - and humankind. The Thinning is both an exquisitely written novel of nature and urgent thriller by the bestselling and acclaimed author of Willowman and The Last Woman in the World.

The Thinning

AFTER THE FIRES. AFTER THE VIRUS. THEY CAME. A remarkable literary novel from the multi-award-nominated Australian writer It's night, and the walls of Rachel's home creak as they settle into the cover of darkness. Fear has led her to a reclusive life on the land, her only occasional contact with her sister. A hammering on the door. There stands a mother, Hannah, with a sick baby. They are running for their lives from a mysterious death sweeping the Australian countryside. Now Rachel must face her worst fears: should she take up the fight to help these strangers survive in a society she has rejected for so long? From the critically acclaimed author of Mr Wigg and Nest, The Last Woman in the World looks at how we treat our world and each other - and what it is that might ultimately redeem us. 'creepy and chilling, this becomes a hell-for-leather survival race through burning countryside' The Observer 'enthralling . . . a powerful allegory . . . every passage swells with the momentum of an action-flick. Each page is shaped with an impressive, world-building cinematic scope' Jessie Tu, Sydney Morning Herald 'Simpson's page-turner layers precise nature writing with a conspiratorial tone for our times, turning in a gripping apocalyptic thriller that infects the sublime features of the landscape with primal fear' The Guardian 'Chilling in its warnings. Powerful' Good Reading 'This novel is fast-paced, adrenalin-fuelled - and dramatic enough to keep me reading into the night' Sarah L'Estrange, ABC Online 'Seat-of-your-pants gripping' ArtsHub 'This book is deeply affecting. Inga Simpson writes with literary brilliance. The Last Woman in the World is an action driven novel, but it is also intensely philosophical, a clever study of character and intensely beautiful. Many fine books have been published in Australia in the last couple of years . . . This is amongst the best. It will stay with me long after the last page was turned' Living Arts Canberra 'The Last Woman in the World is heart-racing, page-turning, hiding-under-the-doona stuff. A smart and pacey thriller that is also a lament for a world we have failed to care for' Kate Mildenhall, bestselling author of The Mother Fault 'The Last Woman in the World is a novel of fear, fire and an uncertain future. A powerful narrative in Inga Simpson's unique voice. Horrifying, yet humane and ultimately hopeful - a masterwork' Angela Slatter, World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Bitterwood Bible 'The Last Woman in the World will grab you and not let go. A necessary read that is sure to set the literary world on fire' Christina Dalcher, author of VOX 'An eerie fiction that mirrors the chaos that has descended on Australians recently. A heart-racing read fitting for our times' Refinery29 Australia 'Simpson is a graceful writer' The Australian 'Inga Simpson writes wondrously' Good Reading 'A powerful voice in Australian literature' The Australian Women's Weekly 'One of the most creative nature writers of our time' MiNDFOOD 'Simpson renders the natural world with her trademark stunning prose and an ending that is profound and surprising' Shankari Chandran, Spectrum's Best Reads of the Year

A tender, luminous collection of interconnected tales that explore love, longing and the wilderness - both within and around us. In this compulsive compilation of eleven stories and one poem - set against scorched landscapes, wild oceans, and rocky terrain - Simpson follows people on the edge of desire, heartbreak and change. In 'Poached', an ex-soldier finds himself between a poacher and a Bengal tiger. In 'The Wash', a woman's reckless ocean swim reveals the instinct to survive and the end of a passionate love. From the aching intensity of romantic love to the quiet devastations of motherhood and ageing, Simpson's literary prowess keeps us riveted by the power of nature to shape human relationships and worlds. Melancholic and joyful, masterful and inspiring, this is contemporary fiction at its finest by Australia's foremost writer of the natural world, Inga Simpson. Praise for Simpson's award-nominated novels: 'Beguiling and entertaining' Weekend Australian 'Storytelling at its best. I was enthralled' SARAH WINMAN, author of Still Life 'I loved this - gorgeous, heartbreaking . . .' ROBBIE ARNOTT, author of Dusk

Stories

Once We Were Wildlife

Kieran pulled me up, and the others followed. We gathered around the bigger tree. No one asked Matty - he just reached up and put his right hand on the trunk with ours. Kieran cleared his throat. 'We swear, on these trees, to always be friends. To protect each other - and this place.' Finding those carved trees forged a bond between Jay and her four childhood friends and opened their eyes to a wider world. But their attempt to protect the grove ends in disaster, and that one day on the river changes their lives forever. Seventeen years later, Jay finally has her chance to make amends. But at what cost? Not every wrong can be put right, but sometimes looking the other way is no longer an option.

Where the trees were

'Joyous storytelling at its best. I was enthralled' SARAH WINMAN, author of Still Life 'I bloody loved this - a gorgeous, heartbreaking examination of so much more than cricket' ROBBIE ARNOTT, author of Limberlost 'Not since Jasper Jones have I been so utterly spellbound by the next ball, the state of the pitch and the intricacies of scoring' KATE MILDENHALL, author of The Mother Fault From the critically acclaimed author of Mr Wigg comes an enthralling literary novel about a batmaker and a gifted young cricketer, set around the time the game began changing. For fans of Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding and Joseph O'Neill's Netherland. Cricket has a willow heart. Batmakers around the world have tried everything, crafting bats from birch, maple, ash, even poplars . . . After two hundred years, cricket bat making is still beholden to a single species: Salix alba caerulea - or white willow Reader Cricket Bats, one of the last traditional batmakers back in England, has a contemporary home in the Antipodes, with Allan Reader keeping the family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne. When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan's eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make a Reader bat for him, selecting the best piece of willow he's harvested in years to do so. As Harrow charts a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the sport, leaving his equally talented sister's dreams in his wake, Allan's magical bat takes centre stage as well, awakening something in him. But can Allan's fledgling renaissance - hanging as it does on the magic of that bat - carry on after Harrow is stricken by injury and a strained personal life? Set as the new short form of the game began to gain prominence, Willowman is a love letter to the art and beauty of cricket and a meditation on the inner lives of certain kinds of men and women, for whom it is a way of life. Award-winning author Inga Simpson writes exquisitely about a national sport you will never view the same way again. 'Heartfelt . . . Uplifting . . . Simpson explores family, priorities, the pain of making difficult choices and the knowledge that it's never too late to start over. This is an uplifting book that will satisfy both cricket lovers and readers who enjoy loving stories about beginning again' BOOKS+PUBLISHING 'What a wonderful book. What a read. A love story to cricket, to families, to craft and to music. Beautifully written' MICHAEL BRISSENDEN 'A fabulous novel. Inga Simpson brings all her craft and sensitivity to a story that has never been told, and now that she has done it, it feels like this was a story that was needing to be told. With her art, Inga joins the likes of Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy in the vanguard of cricket's exciting new revolution. Long may it last' MALCOLM KNOX 'Moving, gripping, authentic, so tenderly told; at once a page-turner and a life-giving meditation - Willowman is just magic' BROOKE DAVIS 'Delightful' JOHN DOYLE (aka Rampaging Roy Slaven)

Willowman

Trees tell stories about places. Australia has some of the tallest, oldest, fattest and most unusual trees in the world. They have changed over thousands of years, adapting to this continent's deserts, mountains, and coasts. Many have found clever ways of dealing with drought and fire. Their leaves, flowers and seeds are food for birds, insects and mammals. Old trees have lots of hollows, which make good homes for possums, sugar gliders, birds and bees. But trees aren't just important for other animals, we need them too. What trees breathe out, we breathe in. They are a vital part of the Earth's ecosystems. When you first stand in a forest, the trees all seem the same. But if you look more closely, they are each a little different, like people. This book is a love song to Australian trees, from the red ironbark to the grey gum, the Moreton Bay fig to the Queensland bottle tree. The first book for children from one of Australia's most beloved authors.

The Book of Australian Trees

The first book for kids from beloved Australian author Inga Simpson all about Australia's unique trees.

The Tree Book

Lesbian detective fiction’s radical origins took the mystery genre to the extreme of the rape of the detective. More contemporary works foreground lesbian sex, romance, and identity. As a result, lesbian detective fiction has not continued to develop and failed to engage a wider audience. The author’s analysis includes works by M.F. Beal, Stella Duffy, Katherine V. Forrest, Clare McNab, Barbara Wilson, and Eve Zaremba. This article originally appeared in Clues: A Journal of Detection, Volume 27, Issue 2.

Inga Simpson

About

Books

Join the club