About this episode

Antoun Issa discusses his new book 'Rebirth', which explores his mother's experiences during the Lebanese civil war and her migration to Australia.

Antoun Issa is a Lebanese-Australian journalist and co-founder of Deepcut News. Antoun has a new book out entitled Rebirth and with the byline a “Love Story from the depths of war.” Rebirth chronicles Antoun’s mothers experiences of the beginnings of the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s and her subsequent migration to Australia. The novel centers around the experience of the pseudonymously named Khalil family and their eldest daughter Laila. Laila works as a seamstress, supporting her father’s income for the family and giving her some small degree of autonomy in moving around Beirut between home and her work. Laila is of an age when her family would be seeking a match, and for her to marry, but Laila is jealous of her independence, her role as a support to her family, and is also secretly in love with the handsome hairdresser she sees coming to and from work. Laila might reasonably worry about the approval of her family and the politics of relationships in a close knit community. When war breaks out and factions around the city close off territories she comes to understand that simple things such as living and dying can be easily overturned by desperate men with guns. In a short…

People in this episode

Guest: Antoun Issa

Topics covered

• Lebanese civil war
• migration
• family dynamics
• love story
• journalism
• personal narrative

Keywords

• Antoun Issa
• Rebirth
• Lebanese civil war
• migration
• love story
• Deepcut News
• journalism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Deepcut News

Books & works: Rebirth

Places: Lebanon, Australia

More episodes of Final Draft - Great Conversations

• Ilka Tampke’s How to Love the World · July 18, 2026 · 44 min
• Book Club - Johanna Bell’s Department of the Vanishing · July 14, 2026 · 3 min
• Katherine Johnson’s Every Wild Soul · July 3, 2026 · 29 min
• Johanna Bell’s Department of the Vanishing · June 26, 2026 · 48 min
• Book Club - Y.M. Abdel-Magied’s At Sea · June 23, 2026 · 5 min
• Mary Colussi’s Touch Grass · June 19, 2026 · 30 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Final Draft - Great Conversations podcast page.