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 th...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKPEOPLE ADULT FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE ACT NOTABLE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023'Willowman may well be the perfect Australian novel' Readings'Beguiling and entertaining' PETER LALOR, Weekend Australian'A sweet strike that goes beyond the boundary' The Age'Joyous storytelling at its best. I...

'MR WIGG captivates to the end' Good Reading MagazineIt’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...

Shortlisted for The Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal 2015Longlisted for The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015Longlisted for The Australian Literary Studies Gold Medal 2015Longlisted for The Stella Prize 2015A gripping and thought-provoking novel about finding the lost child in all of us.Once an artist and teacher, Jen now spends her time watching the b...

'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, alwa...

**Award-winning novelist and nature 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 a world under attack.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 s...

Jack used to say that a good orchard was like a well-lived life. The one up at the old farm, with its hundred-year-old pears leaning over the entrance gates, held more Wigg history than anything written down.It's the summer of 1971, not far from the stone-fruit capital of New South Wales, where Mr Wigg lives on what's left of the family farm. 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 l...

A contemporary fable about the resilience of nature from Inga Simpson, one of Australia's leading nature writers, with paintings by acclaimed illustrator Tannya HarricksWhen Little Peach Tree was just a sapling, all they could see was row upon row of other peach trees. And, on top of the hill, watching over the orchard - the Peach King.As seasons pass, bringing cycles of change, Little Peach Tree grows and grows.But darker changes are stirr...

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 importa...

'a controlled and literate work that earns its emotional peaks' - Saturday Paper'a delight' - The AustralianA memoir about staying in one place, told through trees, by the award-winning author of MR WIGG, NEST and WHERE THE TREES WERE."The understorey is where I live, alongside these plants and creatures. I tend the forest, stand at the foot of trees and look up, gather what has fallen."This is the story of a tree-c...

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, ...

'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.'When Jay and her four childhood friends find a group of ancient trees carved by an Aboriginal tribe to identify sacred land, their eyes are opened t...