> Skip to content
Read an extract
Play sample
  • Published: 31 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9781761040672
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

The Farmer’s Friend

an outback medical drama from the bestselling author of The Opal Miner's Daughter, The Desert Midwife and The Homestead Girls




A moving and uplifting Australian drama about what it really means to be a community – and learning that best friends can also make the best family.

'Heat and dust, love and hope - Fiona McArthur captures the resilience of rural communities.' FIONA LOWE

------------
They’d bought a stock and feed store called, of all things, The Farmer’s Friend.
Gracie could tell Jed thought it a great name. ‘Farmers stick together. I like it.’

NEW BEGINNINGS
Jed and Gracie’s move to Featherwood brings big dreams and open hearts, despite the drought around them. The ready-made rural store even comes with an ancient homestead overlooking the river, albeit one requiring some TLC. Gracie is expecting, and they’re eager to put down family roots in the tiny community.

UNEXPECTED CONNECTIONS
Midwife Nell has fled her life in Sydney, hoping to start afresh on a small farm away from prying eyes and gossip. She strives to go unnoticed, but that proves near impossible when she meets charismatic Gracie and Jed, and the unpredictable, attractive Liam, who has as much emotional baggage as Nell does herself.

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS
Jed’s store becomes the meeting place for the town’s colourful characters, people who’d do anything for their neighbours and friends. As Gracie’s due date draws close, tensions rise between her and Jed when his impulsiveness strains their precarious financial situation. As a bushfire ravages the region, the whole town comes under threat, putting relationships and lives on the line.

Can quiet achievers, unexpected heroes, and a valley of part-time fire-fighters and farmers help Featherwood rise again?

------------

PRAISE FOR FIONA MCARTHUR

'Reading Fiona McArthur is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket and sitting under the stars.' RACHAEL JOHNS
'McArthur...has great skill in storytelling.' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'I never miss one of Fiona McArthur's books.' SAM STILL READING

  • Published: 31 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9781761040672
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

About the author

Fiona McArthur

Drawing from her earlier life as a rural midwife, Fiona McArthur shares her love of working with women, families and health professionals in her books. In her compassionate, pacey fiction, her love of the Australian landscape meshes beautifully with warm, funny, multigenerational characters as she highlights challenges for rural and remote families, and the strength shared between women. Happy endings are a must.
Fiona is the author of the non-fiction book Aussie Midwives, and lives on a farm with her husband in northern New South Wales. She was awarded the NSW Excellence in Midwifery Award in 2015 and the Australian Ruby Award for Contemporary Romantic Fiction in 2020, and was shortlisted for the same award in 2023.
Find her at FionaMcArthurAuthor.com

Also by Fiona McArthur

See all

Discover more

Article
The Farmer’s Friend book club notes

An uplifting Australian drama from rural midwife and bestselling author Fiona McArthur.