Indra publishing

Indrabooks.com is the V2 website for Indra Publishing Pty Ltd, a specialist publisher based in Melbourne, Australia.For just on 20 years from 1987, Indra focussed on fiction and non-fiction books which reflected the cultural diversity of Australia, ethnic diversity as well as lifestyle diversity. From 2007, Indra is only publishing non-fiction.

• Still celebrating diversity, but more in the way of encouraging the airing of diverse points of view relevant to 21st century life.

• Books written for the general market, which also deserve a place in the academic bookshops and university reading lists.

• Religion, philosophy, environment, society

To find a book on Indrabooks.com,

• use the search box for the title or the author’s name
• browse the author’s archive

If you are looking for a book with a particular theme, browse the themes category, and select a title from those listed.

To find a distributor in your country, please open the “Contact us” page.

There’s more about Indra on the “About us” page.

It was pleasant to note the renewed interest in Lynda Langley’s autobiographical book, He’s My Daughter, in which she shares her experience of her adult son’s transgender transition. 

Clearly there is still a real need for parents with transgender children for encouragement and guidance to help them understand and accept the radical path taken by their son or daughter.

With warmth, humour, and lots of love, Lynda survived the initial harrowing days and sleepless nights, enabling her to accept her son Tony’s transition to daughter Toni. Together with her husband and Tony’s younger brother, the whole family learnt to adjust as necessary, while coping with the usual problems of ageing parents, unemployment and family illness, experienced by all families. 

A special book for special families…

Lynda Langley, He’s My Daughter, Indra Publishing rrp $21.95

Available in Melbourne at Hares & Hyenas Bookshop, South Yarra and in Sydney, available at The Bookshop, Darlinghurst.

June Duncan Owen, Worm in the Bud, Indra Publishing, $(US)20.95

In The Midwest Book Review; Reviewer Carol Volk

Worm in the Bud, by June Duncan Owen is an engaging tale of a man called Lewis, and his peculiar despondence from his beloved wife and family upon approach of their wedding anniversary. Vividly granting the reader a superb perspective from the emotionally deprived on behalf of Lewis’ long suffering wife, Worm in the Bud details an incredible creative progression from first page to last as the reader feels more empathy, more truth in the personalities of the characters.

Documenting the storytelling talent and originality of author, June Duncan Owen, Worm in the Bud is very highly recommended reading, particular those who favor a mildly thrilling mystery for its intuitive and eccentric style and its unique story.    

Does God Live in the Suburbs? by Myer Bloom, 346pp, $(AUD)34.95

In Eureka Street, 28 March 2008

An antidote to blokish certainties on religion

When I think of people talking about religions, I see blokes in  dark suits … They may be for religion in general, or against all religions, or for their own religion and against others. But they are all dead earnest, and succeed in making religion seem both strange and incomprehensible to us amateurs.

So this unpretentious collection of interviews is welcome in its simplicity and artlessness. The editor arranged to have adherents of many religious groups interviewed. They were asked to reply to simple questions about their beliefs, their religious practices and symbols, their ethical framework and their attitude to contemporary Australian society. They are amiable and leisurely in their replies.

The question posed in the title of this book - whether God lives in the burbs - remains hanging. The participants, whether from mainline Churches, Eastern religious traditions or more modern beliefs, are articulate but use words that find common ground with readers unfamiliar with their beliefs. They invite others into a world in which their distinctive beliefs and practices are everyday, not strange. They do a much better job of communicating than most of the professionals in their groups.

***

These stories of ordinary believers are striking for two apparently conflicting reasons. First, they hang together. People’s faith, religious symbols and daily lives appear to be part of a coherent whole. Whether or not their religious leaders would agree with the large picture they present, they find it persuasive and workable.

… most striking in most of the accounts is that they are open-ended and contain happily unresolved questions. The believers take their faith seriously, but wrestle with how they are to live in a world where their convictions are a minority taste. Almost all of them are positive in the way they see people with different convictions. They recognise that they drift in the same boat.

***

Although the people interviewed in this book come across as religious people, they appeal more strongly as people you might like to have living next door. They are ordinary people in whose life religious faith and practice seem helpful. They also appear to be good and even nice people, if niceness suggests that their goodness is ordinary.

***

 In Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 2008

This overview of 23 religions in Australia uses a simple technique. Find an ordinary person (i.e. not a theologian) who is practising a particular religion, ask them intelligent questions (history, beliefs, values, rituals, meaning of God) about their faith and then transcribe and edit the interview so it represents a fair statement of the religion through the eyes of an ordinary believer.

***

Bloom offers no commentary and, typically, lets the interviewees range freely across their chosen faith.

***

This is a rare and unusual insight into religion in modern, secular Australia.

***

In Australian veterans’ magazine, Mufti, December 2007
Review by J R Bartram
Shadows of War, by Ryoko Adachi and Andrew McKay $(AU)27.95

This soft covered book of 250 pages is a genuine record of face-to-face interviews and thoughts of ex-POWs, loved ones and Veterans. The authors, both senior journalists (the former a Japanese), interviewed some 40 people who knew personally of events in fighting the Japanese in WWII and have direct contact with another 100. Some never thought they would tolerate having a Japanese in their homes - they will never forget or forgive the atrocities of the Japs.

The contrasting views are understandable and highlight the thought that the Japanese are still fighting the 100 year war - conquering by economic means - and some examples certainly make one think! Others spell out their hate with convincing reasoning. The lack of a formal apology to Australia will keep grievances alive.

***

As the Japanese keep dragging their feet on coming to terms with the terrors against Australia in the 1940s, such books can only assist in educating the young - both Japanese and Australian. An excellent read - buy a copy for the teenagers!

Recent books attacking religion have held the headlines. Now this book presents the beliefs of ordinary people.

The interviews in this Australian book provide an indirect insight into the beliefs of ordinary Americans and Britons.

Non-fiction category: Sociology, religion
Paperback;346 pp
First Edition; 210 x 138 mm
ISBN: 9781920787165;  November 2007
RRP/List Price: Australia: $(Aus)34.95; New Zealand: $(NZ)37.95: North America: $(US)30.00

The Author, Myer Bloom, lives in Melbourne, and researches in the sociology of religion. Past work includes:

The fractured jigsaw that became my life began even before I answered the phone. Over the next hours, running into years, jagged pieces of me fell away, trailing me as if signposting my existence. And yet, somehow, without me even knowing, somebody or something gently slid the pieces back into place. Pieces I thought were lost forever. But the jigsaw will never really be complete, for when you died you passed your pain to me.

This is the compelling story of a mother’s journey after her son suicides, and of her battle to learn to breathe again as she confronts the range of emotions that are left in the wake of suicide.
Even if you have not witnessed a loved one’s anguish due to mental illness, and their struggle to fit the ‘norm’ of society, you will find this story a powerful testament to the invincibility of love.

Coping with suicide: 1st Edition
Paperback, 248 pp
210 x 138 mm
ISBN 1 92078714 3
RRP $aud 28.95
ISBN-13 9781920787141

The Author
Janis Tait is mother to three and friend to many. She has been writing for 15 years, been published in literary magazines and won National Short Story Awards.

Janis works in the aged care industry and is a civil celebrant. She lives with her husband in Melbourne, Australia.

Paul, a young Australian priest arrives in the Philippines in 1971 as Martial Law is proclaimed by President Marcos. His idealism exposes him to first-hand experiences of violence and corruption, to injustices, and above all to the heroism of Filipinos during this extraordinary period of Philippine history. And in his personal life, Paul has to confront the loneliness of the celibate foreign cleric, living alone in the tropical fecundity of Mindanao.

The narrative confronts issues still critical to contemporary society - the misuse of power and the struggle for human rights, issues of sexuality and religion, and the search for identity.

‘ … a story … about the impact of repression on the human spirit - and the way, despite all odds, humanity struggles endlessly against worldly authority.‘ - Justice Michael Kirby

Oct 2005, 176 pp
Paperback, 210 x 138 mm
Fiction; 1st Edition,
ISBN: 1 92078715 1
RRP $aud 26.95
ISBN(13): 9781920787158

The Author
John Bartlett worked as a Catholic priest in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines from 1971 until 1980. He returned to Australia and left the priesthood, working in a variety of jobs for the next twenty years before returning to his first love - writing.

His features and short stories have been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines and he works now as a freelance writer, editor and teacher. John lives on the southern coast of Australia.

While Rose was looking forward to celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary, her husband, Lewis, remained cold and detached, his manner increasingly distant from the entire family. Rose knew that Lewis carried his wartime experiences deep within - experiences he chose not to share. But there always seemed to be an even deeper secret, something more personal.

The opening chapter fills the reader with a sense of foreboding that is not softened by the excellent and evocative imagery throughout this novel of a family farming in southern Tasmania in the 1960s.

Worm in the Bud - set in the farmlands of southern Tasmania.

Fiction - Romance: 1st Edition
Paperback, 296pp
ISBN: 1 92078712 7; 210 x 138 mm
RRp: $aud26.95
ISBN(13): 9781920787127

The Author see also: The Missing Wife
June Duncan Owen’s training and experience in history (MA from Sydney University), social work (University of Adelaide), teaching and farming inform her writing. Her previous book, The Missing Wife, was well received by readers throughout Australia.

June’s published works include
The Missing Wife, Indra Publishing 2004
Mixed Matches: Interracial Marriage in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, 2002
Writing and Selling Articles (Australian/New Zealand Guide), Hale & Iremonger, 1997
How to Write and Sell Articles, Penguin Books, 1992
The Heart of the City, Kangaroo Press, 1987.

This attractively illustrated book introduces yoga as we in the West generally discover it, and leads us into a deeper knowledge of this method of self awareness.

Yoga, Meditation and the Guru is a journey through yoga from the yoga schools of Australia to the ancient origins in the Indus River Valley, 4,500 years ago. The development of yoga in the ancient texts and practices of India is interwoven with its migration to the West.

Dr Bilimoria takes the reader through the therapeutic aspects of yoga to the philosophical traditions in India. He completes the work with a critical review of yoga as practised in Western society generally, but with emphasis on the Australian experience.

The introduction to the therapeutic value and ethical considerations of yoga bring the reader to the search for a guru, where Dr Bilimoria offers his advice concerning some precautions to take, to avoid questionable practicioners.

Dec 1989 95pp
Paperback, 215 x 138 mm
ISBN 0 9587718 2 0
RRP $aud 14.95

The Author, Dr Purusottama Bilimoria, was educated in New Zealand and Australia and spent some time in India and USA, where he combined research and teaching. He has published in the areas of Indian philosophy, ethics, and comparative religions. His current research interests include post-colonial theory, on which he lectures in Bangalore, India and Melbourne, Australia.