MILAN AND ROMA ARE TWINS. THEY'VE LIVED TOGETHER FOR YEARS? BUT ONLY JUST MET. Milan, a violinist in a London orchestra, becomes aware of strange musical clicking sounds seeming to come from inside himself. A series of medical tests gradually reveal that before his birth he somehow managed to consume his twin sister ? a not entirely uncommon occurrence termed medically ?foetus in fetu' and which, as well as being a staple feature in a host of television drama series, describes the ?troublesome offspring? of Cardinal Guzman in Louis de Bernières' 1992 novel of the same name. Milan names his sister Roma and embarks on the task of trying to introduce her to the world outside. He enlists the help of young special needs teacher Murri and together the three of them conduct a series of experiments to enable Roma to express herself. Passenger is a novel about language, identity, perception as creation and the mystery of a fulfilled life. It explores the relationship between the I and the we: the roles we play in the lives of others. Are we our brother's keepers, as Milan is his sister's? Passenger arrests the reader, stripping us of the habits of our bored perception, giving us new eyes, new language, newly tapped rhythms with which to experience these issues as if for the first time. This act of dehabitualised perception ? Milan's act, Roma's act, Cowie's act ? is quietly, beautifully, and quite genuinely, revolutionary. Passenger promises to be one of the most talked-about novels of 2008. ?A simple journey of discovery, about communication and the nature of disabilities... written in a naive, naturalistic style. It firmly establishes [Cowie] as a new Scottish voice of worth.? Big Issue AUTHOR Billy Cowie is a Scottish composer, choreographer and filmmaker who has made over twenty live performance pieces for Divas Dance Theatre as well as commissions for the BBC and Channel 4. He has composed music for a number of BBC Radio 3 projects including Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. Billy is currently Principal Research Fellow at the University of Brighton. Passenger is his first novel. REVIEWS ?A clever work written in a naive style - readers of Dan Rhodes's fiction will be familiar with the technique... a sweet and touching love story? Nicholas Clee, Guardian "Literary debut of deceptive simplicity and unusual subtlety."Fans of Dan Rhodes, Mark Haddon, Patrick Suskind's The Pigeon * Explores universal themes of perception, identity, expression and fulfillment through a unique setting * 1st (self-published) edition reviewed favourably in Guardian, drawing comparisons to Dan Rhodes
