Judges’ Report

Inga Simpson’s incandescent thriller The Thinning sees beyond the darkness. In its place she explores the light – the light of satellites, of surveillance and of the stars. This future is one where the skies are colonised ‘in the same way we once sailed ships to other countries and called it discovery.’ In a brilliant subversion of our relationship with light (‘Light is only darkness diluted’) Simpson pens a haunting ode to the ‘space between the stars’. Her meticulous skill as a nature writer is evident in the way she brings astronomy to life, where our threatened dark skies portend the crushing loss of memory, history and culture. Teenage protagonist Fin’s breakneck journey across Warrumbungle National Park (Gamilaraay Country) is interspersed with flashbacks of a decaying, disintegrating world, and her exhaustion is a visceral reminder of the consequences of the choices we make today. The Thinning is an electric and melancholy tale, disturbingly believable but ultimately – and surprisingly – hopeful.