THE LAST WOMAN IN THE WORLD

Get practising your breathing exercises now: if Inga Simpson’s bleak vision of the near future is anything to go by, the ability to manage your anxiety might be the most important survival skill of them all.

- Sarah Dobbs

4/5

RELEASED 24 FEBRUARY

352 pages | Hardback/ebook/ audiobook

Author Inga Simpson

Publisher Sphere Books

Glass artist Rachel has had plenty of therapy in her time, but trauma still rules her life. When a plague of terror starts sweeping Australia – with people literally being scared to death – she’d rather stay out of it, but with desperate new mum Hannah and sickly baby Isaiah relying on her, she’s forced to face her fears.

Thematically, The Last Woman In The World is incredibly timely. Simpson’s sparse prose is evocative, making you feel every step of Rachel’s arduous journey. Most of the threats she faces (wild dogs, escaped criminals and so on) are your standard issue post-apocalyptic baddies, but they’re rendered with such clear-eyed realism that they feel all too real.