OBSERVER: Rural Dreams
Award-winning rural crime writer Margaret Hickey (pictured has decided that a change is as good as a holiday.
The author of best sellers The Creeoer, Stone Toen and Broken Bay has just renewed a collection of short stories called Rural Dreams, celebrating the Australian countryside.
Hickey is based in north east Victoria and enjoys setting her stories in rural locations.
The stories in Rural Dreams are interesting and varied, ranging from a football coach pondering the concept of obsession, to schoolyard politics caused by a mouse plague, to a young woman returning to her fire ravaged home town, and many other topics in between.
What all the stories have in common is that they feature character in everyday rural life, as Hickey experiences it herself. She aims to showcase the beauty of life lived outside major Australian cities.
The stories are lively and the characters well sketched, making this a collection of stories that should please a wide range of readers.
Published by Penguin Random House, Rural Dreams is out now and available online or at your favourite bookshop.
www.penguin.com.au
Julie Houghton

