A farmhouse is being reproduced a dozen times, with slight variations, throughout a valley. Three small graves have been dug in the front garden, the middle one lying empty. A woman in a wheelchair sorts through boxes while her husband clambers around the old demolished buildings, wondering where the animals have gone. A young woman - called 'the barren one' behind her back - dreams of love, while an ageing headmaster contemplates the end of his life. At the entrance to the long dirt driveway, a car appears and pauses - pointed towards the house like a silver bullet, ticking with heat. So begins The Dream House, Craig Higginson's riveting and unforgettable novel set in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. Written with dark wit, a stark poetic style and extraordinary tenderness, this is a story about the state of a nation and a deep meditation on memory, ageing, meaning, family, love and loss. This updated 2016 edition contains new content, with Craig Higginson exploring the background to The Dream House, his varied experiences in a farmhouse in KwaZulu-Natal and the subsequent and poignant motivations for this moving novel.

'It's here at last - the South African novel that throws off all the literary baggage of political cliche and posturing, and gives us an honest exploration of not only what it is to be human, but what it is to be South African.' - City Press

Craig Higginson is an internationally renowned, multi-award-winning playwright and novelist who lives in Johannesburg. Previous novels include The Hill (Jacana), Last Summer and The Landscape Painter (both Picador Africa). His plays include Dream of the Dog, The Girl in the Yellow Dress, The Jungle Book, Little Foot and The Imagined Land (all published by Oberon Books, London). At present Craig is working on two new plays, The Red Door and The Mission Song (the second being an adaptation of John le Carre's novel for Headlong (London) and John le Carre's production company The Ink Factory (London and LA), as well as a new novel set in Paris - intended for release in 2017. The Dream House will be the first of his novels to appear in French in 2016 (Mercure de France); Last Summer will follow in 2017.