This is not my description of a bad date, I’m relieved to report, but rather the title of David Kowalski’s novel, which is being published by Pan Macmillan Australia in August this year. I’m biased of course but I really do think this is an amazing work – a genre-bending blend of thriller, science fiction, adventure, and alternate history.
This is a rough version of what the cover will finally look like, but I love it. If you really want to help a novice agent and her client, place an advance order for a copy in your local bookshop. The bookseller will be intrigued that you know about this title, and will probably order a few more copies for her store.
What would you do if you could go back and alter the past?
What do you ever do?
Here is the description of The Company of the Dead that Pan Macmillan has featured in its 2007 catalogue:
Even to the last he maintained his one strict, if morbid rule. His one pessimistic precaution. He only kept company with the dead. There’d be time enough to forge new acquaintances when the deed was done.
In 1912, Doctor Jonathan Wells, armed with knowledge of the future, changes the course of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, determined to steer the 20th Century away from world wars, genocide, death and destruction.
In 2012, Major Joseph Kennedy, witness to the catastrophic outcome of Wells’ plan, has the technological means to reach back into the years that separate them.
What would you do if you could go back and alter the past?
What do you ever do?
David Kowalski is an obstetrician and gynaecologist practicing in Western Sydney. He has been published in professional medical journals but this is his first work of fiction. The Company of the Dead took David seven years to write.
