An insightful story about a man who lived under Stalin and Hitler before finding freedom in Canada.

This biography recounts the tales of hardship, broken loyalties, harrowing escape and the eventual success of a Russian-German Mennonite man who was able to rise to the top of academia in Canada at Wilfred Laurier University after the war.

“Hecht has done far more than merely record one family’s history; he has put lifeblood into the remote facts of history. May our hearts beat with renewed compassion as a result of reading his book.”

— Sean Arthur Joyce, Laying the Children’s Ghosts to Rest

“Man can this geographer tell a story!”

— James Pew, Woke Watch Canada

Jonathan Zimmerman suspected his grandmother murdered her sister during the Second World War to cover up a jilted love affair with her husband. As Jonathan attempts to uncover the truth sixty years later, he learns the family has a curse and the only way to break it is to resolve his own troubled relationship with Claire Cunningham. When the curse takes its toll and Jonathan learns his own life is in danger, he has no choice. He must go all the way to expose his grandmother’s secret.

It has long been believed that the natural environment shapes people and societies. Hecht, a biogeography teacher at Mount Royal University in Canada, takes us on a tour to explain why Brexit was predictable, European invasion of the New World was inevitable, and America’s future is destined to be limited. History and geopolitics have often be explained through the lens of politics and social theory but ‘The Rules of Invasion’ brings a fresh new look at understanding why global events happened in the past and what will happen in the future. You need only look to the natural world to make sense of it all.