Sonya Hartnett is the author of several acclaimed novels - the first written when she was just thirteen - and the recipient of many prestigious awards in her native Australia. She says Tin and his tunneling had their origin in ants: "I was living at the time in two rooms, just going back and forth, back and forth as I watched an entire summer of ants excavating under my house. One day it occurred to me that they probably had a huge palace under there. And that’s when I started to think about ways of taking your existence into your own hands - of how, if the space around you was not big enough, you might just dig out some more." This is Sonya Hartnett’s first book with Candlewick Press.