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  • Published: 2 January 2002
  • ISBN: 9780141001425
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $30.00

Heart Country




After seven years on the road with her family, Kerry McGinnis is tired of the wandering life and yearns for a proper home. When her father, the irascible but loveable Mac, buys a property in Queensland's Gulf Country, it seems like she might have found one.

But not everything goes smoothly. In their struggle to make a go of things, the McGinnis family encounters fire, flood, a three-metre python, and other, human obstacles. Sian, the eldest son, is at loggerheads with his father, while Mac soon develops itchy feet. And Kerry and her sister Judith discover that life in a man's country is far from easy. At a time when young women are expected to settle down and have a family, Kerry must make some difficult decisions about love, marriage and her passionate desire to write.

Full of exuberance, humour and courage, this sequel to Kerry McGinnis's highly successful Pieces of Blue is an uplifting account of life in a land of incredible beauty and harsh demands.

  • Published: 2 January 2002
  • ISBN: 9780141001425
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $30.00

About the author

Kerry McGinnis

Kerry McGinnis was born in Adelaide and at the age of twelve took up a life of droving with her father and four siblings. The family travelled extensively across the Northern Territory and Queensland before settling on a station in the Gulf Country. Kerry has worked as a shepherd, droving hand, gardener and stock-camp and station cook on the family property, Bowthorn, north-west of Mount Isa. She is the author of two volumes of memoir, Pieces of Blue and Heart Country, and the bestselling novels The Waddi Tree, Wildhorse Creek, Mallee Sky, Tracking North, Out of Alice, Secrets of the Springs, The Heartwood Hotel, The Roadhouse, Croc Country, The Missing Girl and Gathering Storms. Kerry now lives in Bundaberg and was awarded the Order of the Outback in 2022 for her work in promoting the bush.

Also by Kerry McGinnis

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Praise for Heart Country

McGinnis has the eye of a painter; she writes as she sees and the land comes alive.

Weekend Australian

What makes this book stand out - apart from its compelling narrative of a vanishing way of life - is its lyrical description of the country and the elements that shape each season.

Australian Bookseller & Publisher

A rare insight into the difficulties of life in the Australian outback during the 1940s and '50s.

Weekly Times