About this ebook
Longlisted for The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015
Longlisted for The Australian Literary Studies Gold Medal 2015
Longlisted for The Stella Prize 2015
A 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 birds around her house and tending her lush sub-tropical garden near the small hinterland 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 missing - 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, when the answers do come, like the wet, it is in a drenching, revitalising downpour.
'entrancing' - Adelaide Advertiser
'a story full of intrigue' - Herald Sun
'Nest is a thoroughly enjoyable, uplifting read from one of the most creative nature writers of our time' - MiNDFOOD
'This gentle, introspective novel will delight bird lovers and possibly introduce the joys of the avian world to others.... Inga Simpson writes wondrously simple prose about the natural world' - Good Reading
'a testament to her talent as a nature writer' - The Saturday Age
Ratings and reviews
About the author
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.