Novel Introduction

This is a true story.

All of it.

My name is Adam Holwerda and I’m about to be killed. The pages that follow this one are three years full work, by five different men. Four of them are already dead and I am the fifth. The story of our project has been leaked, to those who would rather see us die than to see our work come to fruit. I do not know how this has happened. I can no longer trust the publisher I’ve been in contact with, and so I’m sending this letter and the following attached pages to every major and minor publishing house I have in my address book. If indeed my previous publisher has been faithful, then I am sorry, but very soon it won’t matter much anyway. What is important is that the story gets out, so that I and my brothers may not die in vain.

If you are reading this, then there is still hope in the world. Hope that truth still stands up against power, that minds remain open while all other venues are closed. If you are reading this, then you will finally know the truth about Ivan Gildrick, whether or not you feel you must believe it. My instructions to the publishing houses insist that they must market this book as fiction, and to keep my identity anonymous. But know, now, that this work is not fiction, and that I am a real man – no imagination created me but my own. Soon I will bleed, and it will be my own blood. My first name is Adam, and that is important. That is real. I have included in my instructions a surname, the one I wish them to use. It is the one on the front of this book, and I’ve chosen it because I never had a surname, and this one is rare enough that I won’t be mistaken for anyone I didn’t intend to be. I am not Adam Holwerda, but I claim to be. That is the only lie, the only fiction.

I’m about to die, and you’re about to read the truth. And if I can believe that there is a chance this will all work out, I can die with a stamp of satisfaction on my soul.

Let them come.