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Once an artist and teacher, Jen now spends her time watching the birds around her house and tending her lush, subtropical 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. When she was Henry's age, she lost her father and her best friend, Michael - both within a week. The whole town talked about it then, and now, nearly 40 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, when the answers do come, like the wet, it is in a drenching, revitalising downpour.

Nest was longlisted for the Stella Prize 2015.

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Long Table Lunch with Inga Simpson
JULY
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Inga Simpson
Long Table Lunch with Inga Simpson
Mollymook Beach
The Great Walk by Inga Simpson
The Great Walk by Inga Simpson
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Read an extract from The Thinning
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Book club questions for The Thinning
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10 books to read this International Women's Day
5 Minutes With ... Inga Simpson
5 Minutes With ... Inga Simpson
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her love for the Ironbark Tree
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her love for the Ironbark Tree
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her new book UNDERSTORY
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her new book UNDERSTORY
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her favourite nature place to write
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her favourite nature place to write
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her writing technique for her memoir
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her writing technique for her memoir
Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist 2017
Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist 2017
Green Carnation Longlist 2016
Green Carnation Longlist 2016
ABIA Awards 2017 Longlist
ABIA Awards 2017 Longlist
Inga Simpson (Part 1) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 1) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 3) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 3) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 2) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 2) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 4) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 4) | #PassionShared
The Great Walk by Inga Simpson
The Great Walk by Inga Simpson
Read an extract from The Thinning
Read an extract from The Thinning
Book club questions for The Thinning
Book club questions for The Thinning
10 books to read this International Women's Day
10 books to read this International Women's Day
5 Minutes With ... Inga Simpson
5 Minutes With ... Inga Simpson
Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist 2017
Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist 2017
Green Carnation Longlist 2016
Green Carnation Longlist 2016
ABIA Awards 2017 Longlist
ABIA Awards 2017 Longlist
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her love for the Ironbark Tree
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her love for the Ironbark Tree
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her new book UNDERSTORY
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her new book UNDERSTORY
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her favourite nature place to write
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her favourite nature place to write
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her writing technique for her memoir
UNDERSTORY by Inga Simpson | About her writing technique for her memoir
Inga Simpson (Part 1) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 1) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 3) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 3) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 2) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 2) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 4) | #PassionShared
Inga Simpson (Part 4) | #PassionShared
Long Table Lunch with Inga Simpson
JULY
31
Inga Simpson
Long Table Lunch with Inga Simpson
Mollymook Beach
Inga Simpson

Inga Simpson

Inga Simpson began her career as a professional writer for government before gaining a PhD in creative writing. In 2011, she took part in the Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program and, as a result, Hachette Australia published her first novel, Mr Wigg, in 2013. Nest, Inga's second novel, was published in 2014 and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize and shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal. Inga's third novel, the acclaimed Where the Trees Were, was published in 2016.

Inga was awarded the final Eric Rolls Prize for her nature writing and has obtained a second PhD, exploring the history of Australian nature writers. Inga's account of her love of Australian nature and life with trees, Understory, was published in 2017. Her first book for children, The Book of Australian Trees, illustrated by Alicia Rogerson, was published in 2021. The Last Woman in the World, her critically acclaimed environmental thriller, was published in 2021 and shortlisted for the 2022 Fiction Indie Book Award. Her bestselling and critically acclaimed 2022 novel Willowman was shortlisted for the BookPeople Adult Fiction Book of the Year 2023 and in 2024 was selected by Australia's leading booksellers in BookPeople's 100 Must-Read Australian Novels. Her 2024 literary thriller The Thinning has been shortlisted for the 2025 ACT Literary Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize and the 2025 Fiction Indie Book Award. The Peach King, illustrated by Tannya Harricks, is her second book for children, and published in 2025. Once We Were Wildlife is her eighth novel.

Inga lives on the New South Wales south coast among trees.

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