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 school yard 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 cliche to say that there's something for everyone in this book but there just is.' Books+Publishing