'In the brief four years between the publication of her first volume of short stories and her death in 1986, Olga Masters was celebrated as one of Australia's most powerful and original writers. She won a National Book Council award and was shortlisted for another, and was published in the United States, France and Italy. She wrote two novels and three collections of stories, the third published posthumously. Gathered now in one volume are all the stories from The Home Girls and A Long Time Dying and those she had completed for The Rose Fancier, tough, honest stories that portray rural and suburban life with compassion and unsparing observation. ' (Publication summary)