SYLVAIN NEUVEL

THERE ARE HOLES IN HUMAN HISTORY into which, if you’re careful, you can drop stories without causing discernible ripples in the timeline. It’s an approach taken by Sylvain Neuvel in his new novel, A History Of What Comes Next. It deals with the development of rocketry and begins in the ’40s, the decade when Nazi Germany launched V-2 rockets against London.

“It’s more a secret history than an alternate history,” he says, speaking from his home in Montreal.