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Australian Arnold Rosen is celebrating his 70th birthday with his family aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

By coincidence, on the same cruise ship, the American Gus Smith and his family are also celebrating his 70th.

The two men meet. They are identical in appearance but clearly not related. Arnold is the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors, while Gus' parents were German - indeed, his father was a rabid anti-Semite.

It seems they are doppelgangers, or 'doubles'. However, it may be more complicated than that. Not only were the two men born on the same day, it turns out that they were both born in the same small town, in post-war Germany.

The two men's backgrounds are so different that despite their similarities, there is surely no possibility that they could be related...

What will they uncover when they travel to Waiblingen, the small town in Germany where they were both born, to seek the truth?

"Dragon's Gate is a superb book, a fascinating story written from the heart and woven into a complex cultural and historical tapestry - a modern classic in the making." - Robert Macklin, author of Dragon and Kangaroo

 

Shi Ding is seventeen. In an attempt to impress a girl, he joins a local Red Guard unit and succeeds in having a nine-year-old boy arrested and a widowed professor of foreign literature driven to a shameful suicide. But when his father's death is also revealed as suicide, Shi Ding is expelled from the gang. He suspects there was more to the relationship between his father and the professor than friendship and he moves into her empty house. There he discovers a library of translations of forbidden Western classics. Himself a born storyteller, he is transfixed by the stories in these books by the likes of Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Hugo, Dickens, and Dumas …

 

Set in China in the mid-60s, Dragon's Gate is about the power of storytelling. Within its overarching narrative, there are stories of little-known worlds: river logging in remote mountains, armed fighting between Red Guard factions, fortune telling on long train journeys, community life in the courtyards of Beijing hutong.

 

Memorable characters abound in this rich and varied tale - characters like Sun Lanfen, the nosy, tough but decent residential compound leader; the blind singer who was struck dumb when he had to sing songs set to Chairman Mao's quotations; and the Buffalo Boy who was reputed to have fathered a hundred children in a Tibetan village.

 

"The unique interweaving of fascinating tales set in exotic places with familiar and much loved western classics makes this book a page turner from beginning to end." - Jane Sydenham-Kwiet, German teacher and translator

David’s girlfriend dumped him, he writes about bars for a shrinking newspaper, and he’s desperately searching for meaning amongst Sydney’s shallow social and dating scene.

 

Then he meets a young woman at a party who just might be the answer to his life’s meaninglessness. However, she’s only 19 – and one of his journalism student’s friends.

 

Drowning in the Shallows is about a man who tries to curb his sleazier tendencies in the #metoo era, about a cat’s ruthless attempt to dominate its owner, and about how – in a society obsessed with networking – we’re more estranged than ever.

To one who for a good many years has lived among the tropic isles of Torres Strait, and whose constant regret has been that their romantic attractiveness is so little known even to Australians, the Drums of Mer comes with very strong appeal. There are some who may think that Mr Idriess is giving us simply an imaginative picture, but the author has travelled the Strait with the discerning eye and contemplative soul of the artist who is satisfied only with first-hand colour, and who, while blending history and romance with subtle skill, at the same time keeps within the region of fact. The records and documents placed at his disposal by those who have patiently collected them in the interests of history, of ethnological and scientific research, and (if one may be allowed to say so) even of missionary theological science also, provide the rich store upon which he has drawn for the thrilling story he has woven round the people of Mer and the other islands of Torres Strait. We have been waiting for someone to catch the charm and appealing mysteriousness of these islands, and to visualize the days, not so very long past, when the great outrigger canoes, with their companies of feather-bedecked headhunters, traversed the opalescent waters a couple of hundred miles down the Barrier, to return perhaps with cowering white captives or grim human trophies for the ceremonies of the 'Au-gud-Au-Ai,' the 'Feast of the Great God.' And if it seems that the starkness of tragedy throws a cloud here and there over the dramatic episodes which the author has so well narrated, possibly it is a good thing for present-day tourist-travellers (and others too!), to realize that a trip along the Barrier and through the Strait on the way to China was not always so free from danger.

(from Foreword by Wm. H. MacFarlane), Mission Priest, Torres Strait; Administrator of the Diocese of Carpentaria. 31 July 1933.)

Dr Thomas McMahon, a self-assured and ambitious Australian environmentalist, journeys into the Philippines, intending to 'save' the tribal peoples of Mindanao and their mountain environment from the exploitation of Horizon Mining Corporation (HMC). Instead, the country changes him in ways that he never thought possible.

Tom is in his mid-thirties, married, with a successful academic career and important international environmental connections. He heads The Melbourne Environment Centre, which locks horns with the Company. This battle spills over into the Philippines, where HMC is launching a new mining operation after uncovering the largest copper deposit in Asia.

As a political pragmatist who campaigns on climate change and sustainable development, Tom becomes enmeshed in a network of green militant insurgents who see him and his campaign as part of the problem. Tom discovers that people are the primary threatened species - not birds, pandas or whales.

Um den Fall Marks aufzuklären, nahm Inspektor Bonaparte, der berühmte »Bony«, seinen Abschied bei der Kriminal-polizei von Queensland. Jetzt streift er inkognito durch Neusüdwales. Für die Polizei galt der Fall als abgeschlossen. Bony aber hält den Tod des Polizeibeamten Luke Marks für einen - fast - perfekten Mord!

Elderly Holocaust "survivor" Jack (Yaakov Stein) now lives in Melbourne. After trying to pass off a false testimony to a young Catholic photographer, Ian Gross, he then relents and tells us the truth ... Or does he?

 

With false memoirs all the rage, this is clearly a fictitious story with some real characters, at once highly entertaining and deadly serious.

 

Ernst Leitz II ("the photography industry's Schindler") not only designed and manufactured Germany's most famous camera, the Leica, but also saved hundreds of Jewish lives from certain death during the Holocaust. From the kernel of this true story, Joe Reich weaves an interesting - sometimes outrageous - blend of fact and fiction, historical and contemporary times, drawing the reader into the fictional life and exploits of the protagonist.

 

"Joe has the ability to seamlessly merge history with the present, and create a most readable and enjoyable story." - Nicolas Brasch, author of Gallipoli Reckless Valour

 

"Ein Stein is a real page turner and a terrific read." - Esther Kister, Chairperson Melbourne Jewish Book Week

 

Nachdem Will es fertiggebracht hat, das lässige Verhältnis seines besten Freundes Sweets mit einer Frau zu ruinieren, verspricht er Wiedergutmachung, indem er ihm eine neue Freundin sucht.

Komplikation eins: die Frau, die Will findet, ist so umwerfend, dass er sich gegen seinen Willen selbst zu ihr hingezogen fühlt.

Komplikation zwei: selbst der kombinierte Charme von zwei ausgekochten Restaurantchefs konnte vielleicht nicht ausreichen, um die Mauer aus Eis zu schmelzen, die sie zwischen sich und der Welt aufrichtet.

Konnen großartiges Essen, großartiger Sex und eine großartige Freundschaft die Lage retten?

Electra is the final book in The Delphic Women trilogy.

Electra is forced to flee her home after witnessing the shocking murder of her father, Agamemnon. But life outside the palace walls is frightening.

The free and easy ways of her foreign companions disturb her - especially the scandalous relationship between the Trojan woman, Cassandra, and the two men - but she needs their help to survive. Along the way, Electra's travels - driven by a burning desire for revenge - become a different kind of journey.

Electra evokes the dark perils and pleasures of the ancient world with a contemporary sensual intensity.

Hephaestus Forge Biotech crafts the gods of tomorrow. Manufacturing prosthetic limbs and bespoke organs, they're represented by double-leg amputee spokesmodel Cymbre Archer. But a lifetime in the spotlight and wearing company tech has taken its toll on Archer, body and soul, and she's now addicted to painkillers and prone to violent outbursts.
Then her coordinator steals a robot from the company's lab and asks her to hide it. Blindsided when a living, feeling automaton arrives on her doorstep in a crate, Archer finds that Caelan brings with him an unexpected humanity – and the desperate need for a savior.
Archer's no hero, and though she's not the savior Cael needs, it turns out she's the best one he's got.

ESCAPE has unexpected tales of contemporary life, comedy, tragedy, mystery, romance, sci fi, dystopian fantasy, a homage to David Foster Wallace and lots more. All served with a good dose of quirky and a fine turn of phrase. If you like your genres with a bit of edge, you'll love this diverse collection of stories from Spineless Wonders. Features award-winning writers such as Ryan O'Neill, Jen Mills, Andy Kissane, Louise Swinn, Julie Chevalier, A.S. Patric and Kim Westwood as well as stories chosen by Sophie Cunningham in the inaugural Carmel Bird Short Fiction Award. Contains illustrations by talented young artist, Paden Hunter.

'Quality short fiction, packed with surprises. Prepare to be transported.' - Marion Halligan

Facing the Music explores the dark side of ambition and the ambiguous passions which surround creativity. Duncan Bayle is a successful composer whose genius has faltered. He blames his problems on the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of his daughter, Anna, whom he has long regarded as his muse. Duncan believes that if he is to work again, Anna must return. But she had good cause to leave and even better reason to stay away.

Here is Brodie, an expatriate trader in New Guinea, whose understanding of the sorceries and rituals he now lives with is moving close to respect and wonderment. He watches his visiting daughter, a twelve year old, being captivated by this culture of theatre.

The place was packed. Tiptoe, over the matt-black heads of the crowd, he could see the performers. He edged closer, but so rapt was everyone that none of them looked around. The figure who held their attention was not from anywhere Brodie could place, and indeed, more than anywhere else, he might have come from the grave. His eyesockets were painted with sulphur, enlarged to include much of the temples and the cheekbones, so bright a yellow that the eyes behind seemed empty. His skull was shaved and rubbed with ashes, and whatever hank remained of the hair was evidently the support for the plumes which pealed upward like golden-throated trumptes and for the crimson lances which entered the head, one on either side, which spoke of the fierce manner of his death.

When daughter Meg falls suddenly ill, Brodie fears she will be relying more on a matrix of magic rather than the sterile planes and inoculant infusions he would better trust.

This novella was first published in the Antipodes Journal, Austin, Texas.

Faraway Places is a collection of three novellas that goes to dark and dingy places that the faint-hearted might wish are truly faraway. But are they? Not when you take a crazed trip with an odd-ball who dreams of a faraway place, while all the while he is on a slow-burn to insanity. Maybe he can solve the problem of living in a caravan alongside a garbage tip with a foul-mouthed significant other and a companion dog. That's not an easy problem to solve when you lack initiative.

 

Perhaps the frozen wastelands of pre-revolutionary Russia are a change of location, but still you'll find that it's that kind of faraway place where many bizarre things could be possible: dogheaded people might exist, a nasty con-man can become a tsar and, if you want to save your skin, there are people you should avoid. If that’s not enough, then waiting to be solved is the provenance of two mysterious trunks and their contents in the basement of St Petersburg's Hermitage.

 

Finally, a misconstruction about a killing on an isolated farm in a British colony in 1815 leads to disastrous consequences. Decent men can commit abominable acts and criminals can be decent. In this faraway place, it's brutal times all round - brutal times for the original native inhabitants, for settlers and their women, and for the convicts and child convicts. A gripping read.

A city in danger. Thousands will die. What would you sacrifice to save them?

Operative Mark Talbert's father is murdered, the agency he works for has him hunting terrorists, and the only connection is the father of Julie Evans, the woman he loves.

Julie's father has placed her in the hands of a terrorist determined to unleash horror on an unprepared city. She needs someone she can depend on, but can she trust the man she loves?

People are dying; people who seem to have nothing in common, until Mark discovers his father's involvement in a decades-old crime. A killer is taking a calculated revenge that threatens Mark, Julie, and Julie's son.

Meanwhile the terrorists are making their final move.