Rural Dreams

From award-winning crime writer Margaret Hickey comes a collection of captivating short stories celebrating the Australian countryside.

Margaret Hickey's Rural Dreams takes a look at life outside the big smoke, featuring the kind of characters you might expect in the country — as well as some you might not.

A football coach ponders obsession... a mouse plague dictates schoolyard politics... a failed playwright asks 'who gets the farm?'... and a young woman returns to her fire-ravaged town.

People we know. People we grew up with. Some of them might even be us...

Funny, heartbreaking and true, Rural Dreams highlights the richness of life on the land and showcases the beauty of lives lived outside city walls.

'Each story brings a richness of character and experience, unexpected and utterly authentic.' — Marian Matta, author of Life, Bound

'Stories that are lively, entertaining and authentic.' — Martin Flanagan

'There's a beauty in these stories that feels reminiscent of fairy tales — not all with happy endings — but all leaving you feeling like you've understood something of what it is to be human.' — Westerly Magazine

'It's a cliché to say that there's something for everyone in this book but there just is.' — Books+Publishing