Description

‘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.

Publisher Review

The Thinning moves with the compressed momentum of a thriller towards a spectacular climax . . . stunningly wrought * Guardian * [An] emotive tour de force * Australian Women’s Weekly * Inga Simpson writes beautifully about place and nature . . . There’s an acute sense of observation and a quiet interest in the world * The Bookshelf, Radio National * A beautifully written story about nature, climate crisis, the night skies and humanity coming together * Readings * An epic and hopeful journey * Books + Publishing * There’s a quest, a sort of odd-couple alliance, heart-thumping action and – again and again – beautiful descriptions of the land on which we live, and the skies that surround us * ABC News * Simpson’s novel is taut, fast-paced and brimming with tension. Expertly structured, it weaves past and present together in a seamless, moving story * The Conversation * It’s strong, resonant fiction . . . a literary dystopia written on a utopian palimpsest * The Age *