Böcker utgivna av Hybrid Publishers

Whatever your view of life - spiritual, ornery, laid-back, reactionary, woke or wacky - you will welcome this debut collection of short stories by Sydney-born, Sydney-bred, peripatetic author, Phillip Derone.Tales born of experience and imagination.Share in relationships, intimacies, romantic interludes, self-satisfied contentment; sly sex, sex on the side, sex on the slide.Consider contentious contemporary issues heavily cloaked in fictional drapes. Recoil from - or cheer on - confronting opinionated mindsets. Despair at poor judgment and inevitable disaster.Take fantastical trips - into space, into time, into re-imagined Biblical narrative, into childhood, into dreams - or stay grounded in the murky world of internet dating.Discover another angle to Shakespeare; eavesdrop on brief conversations with other long-dead writers.Laugh out loud at mayonnaise madness in Majorca; view vignettes of inner Sydney, including Audrey Hepburn's innocent contribution to its social fabric; contemplate the end of humanity, albeit a highly benign one.Delight in stumbling upon buried treasure of wordplay, cultural allusions and cliches.And always be prepared for an ending that you had not expected.So, travel to various destinations, experience novel philosophical itineraries and gain insight into other worlds by way of stories laced with intrigue and tinged with an ever-circling cynicism. You may find yourself examining common assumptions, questioning the mundanity of the quotidian, wondering whether coincidence can be life changing, and enjoying some momentary pleasures.

Lian Knight has recreated the amazing life of her grandfather, a war hero. What has been published about him is extraordinary - 2000 newspaper articles, many printed more than a century ago. Yet almost nothing written about him is consistent. The press varied his name, his age, his place of birth, where he lived and what he did. There were whispers that he emerged from poverty, delivering fish before dawn in London's East End in the markets and laneways of Jack the Ripper's local haunts, before joining the army at just thirteen. Averse to authority, he was a military superior's nightmare. He served in South Africa and India before migrating to Australia.When World War I broke out, he was despatched to the Western Front where, gassed, bombed and working against remarkable odds, he saved the lives of many and was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour. He became legendary, gaining medals and escaping death on numerous occasions. After the war he married and finally returned to Australia. He was famous in England and Australia for his bravery and kindness to his fellow man. Later as a movie star, a politician, a boxer, a celebrated Australian identity and a good Samaritan, his notoriety seemed to know no bounds. Which of these stories were real? A mixture of truth and fantasy has continued to be reported ... until now. 'From page 1 of Ratbag, Soldier, Saint, I entered the magnificent maze of the life of Issy Smith, wonderfully led through that life by Issy's granddaughter, Lian Knight.' - General Sir Peter Cosgrove'This book brilliantly recounts the unusual life of Sergeant Issy Smith VC, a Jewish war hero of WWI, revealing the many challenges he and his family faced in Australia and England during the war and in the post-war years. A captivating read!' - MAJGEN (Ret'd), Emeritus Professor Jeffrey V Rosenfeld

How does the 2021 Indo-Pacific security arrangement Australia has entered into with the United Kingdom and the United States fit into Australia's historical approach to its defence and foreign affairs policies? What experiences in the past have shaped Australia's attitude to defence? Have these policies been influenced or even dictated by the public's opinions and beliefs or have they been formulated mainly by politicians, diplomats, specialists and commentators and imposed on the populace, albeit gently, or perhaps stealthily?This book looks closely at the election campaigns of 1943, 1946 and 1949 when the threat of attack and even invasion had been very real and imminent and the security of the country was uppermost in many people's minds; at how the political leaders and commentators presented their opinions and ideas on future national defence and foreign policy to a public that may or may not have been interested; and at how they argued it out amongst themselves, testing the waters, feeling their way into a new world order.And so, how much of Australia's defence and foreign affairs stance is based on its history, its geographical position and the political nature of its neighbours, leading to the conclusion that it will be that way "e;forever"e;, and thereby clearly definable?

'When Bunting drew this in 1581, absolutely no one in the world could have known what the coast of Western Australia looked like...' Nick Lawrance, an antique map dealer, is shocked to find his gallery has been burgled. However, this isn't an ordinary robbery: the thieves have ignored priceless maps and have only taken Bunting's World Map. All of a sudden, Nick is thrown into a four-hundred-year religious mystery where strange people around him will do anything for this map... even kill for it. Nick has to figure out why, before it's too late. Thrilling and steeped in dark history, The Bunting Quest is inspired by a real-life map that displays the Australian coastline many years before its 'discovery'. Here, two compelling adventures, set hundreds of years apart, come together in this breathtaking page-turner that reveals mankind's greatest secret. 'It's written in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code, though it's more deeply imagined, pacier, and better written.' - Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald 'Marcuson is a proficient storyteller... This intriguing novel conveys a powerful message that racial prejudice and religious bigotry breed monsters.' - Phillip Siggins, The Australian

Carrots and Jaffas tells the story of two red-headed identical twins whose oneness is ruptured when one of them is kidnapped. Their startling intimacy is both a strength and a fault line in their being, and once separated, their individuality emerges. In the course of this exhilarating domestic tale set in Melbourne and the Flinders Ranges, the reader encounters the twins' parents - emotional, scripture-quoting Luisa and calm Bernard - as well as two remarkable storytellers, Doc, an eccentric outback doctor and Greta, an Aboriginal elder. Trauma is followed by recovery through the unexpected agency of story and 'country' (in the Australian Aboriginal meaning of that term). Howard Goldenberg is a doctor, writer, marathon runner and Olympic torch bearer. He has written two non-fiction books, My Father's Compass (2007) and Raft (2009). This is his first novel.

My Mother's Spice Cupboard is the true story of the author's Sephardi Jewish family's migration from Baghdad to Bombay (now Mumbai) to Sydney. Unlike most other Australian Jews, her parents were born and grew up in Bombay, and her grandparents came from Iraq, Burma and India. Her father's family immigrated to Sydney, her mother's to Los Angeles, both in the 1960s. They married in Sydney and raised their family there, alongside the father's many brothers and sisters and members of their former Bombay community. Despite being Jewish, her upbringing was greatly influenced by the food, language and culture of India, and to a lesser extent, Iraq. My Mother's Spice Cupboard is the story of what happened to a community which no longer exists, how its members built new lives in a different country, and what it was like to grow up as one of their children. It's also about how much things have changed over four generations in one family. The author's grandparents' arranged marriage produced nine children; both her parents grew up within the confines of Bombay's insular Baghdadi Jewish community whereas she grew up as a first generation Australian in Sydney. Her children's lives are underpinned by the differing Jewish traditions of her family and her husband's family. The themes underlying the story are those of family and community versus individuality; choice versus obligation; and tradition versus modernity. And underlying the entire narrative is the importance of food and cooking, which goes beyond the mere provision of sustenance to express warmth, love and hospitality.

Seen through the eyes of an illiterate twelve-year-old boy, Nava Semel's moving, at times lyrical fiction explores life in the Palestine of the 1930s - a world where a young Jew is prepared to undertake multiple marriages to threatened East European women for patriotic reasons alone; where a boy's closest friends are a dog named after his hero Johnny Weissmuller (the screen Tarzan of blessed memory), his brother's first wife, and the girl next door. Semel weaves a rich evocation of love and pain and promises, written with eloquent humanity and verve.