AFTER THE FIRES. AFTER THE VIRUS. THEY CAME. A remarkable literary novel from the multi-award-nominated Australian writer

It's night, and the walls of Rachel's home creak as they settle into the cover of darkness. Fear has led her to a reclusive life on the land, her only occasional contact with her sister.

A hammering on the door. There stands a mother, Hannah, with a sick baby. They are running for their lives from a mysterious death sweeping the Australian countryside.

Now Rachel must face her worst fears: should she take up the fight to help these strangers survive in a society she has rejected for so long?

From the critically acclaimed author of Mr Wigg and Nest, The Last Woman in the World looks at how we treat our world and each other - and what it is that might ultimately redeem us.

'creepy and chilling, this becomes a hell-for-leather survival race through burning countryside' The Observer

'enthralling . . . a powerful allegory . . . every passage swells with the momentum of an action-flick. Each page is shaped with an impressive, world-building cinematic scope' Jessie Tu, Sydney Morning Herald

'Simpson's page-turner layers precise nature writing with a conspiratorial tone for our times, turning in a gripping apocalyptic thriller that infects the sublime features of the landscape with primal fear' The Guardian

'Chilling in its warnings. Powerful' Good Reading

'This novel is fast-paced, adrenalin-fuelled - and dramatic enough to keep me reading into the night' Sarah L'Estrange, ABC Online