Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow (EBook, 2008, Random House Publishing Group)
eBook
English language
Published Nov. 19, 2008 by Random House Publishing Group.
The Sparrow is a novel about a remarkable man, a living saint, a life-long celibate and Jesuit priest, who undergoes an experience so harrowing and profound that it makes him question the existence of God. This experience--the first contact between human beings and intelligent extraterrestrial life--begins with a small mistake and ends in a horrible catastrophe.
Starts off (too) slowly and takes a long time to get going, the author could have culled 100 pages without affecting the story much. There's an unexpected twist at the end but it's not worth slogging through 500 pages.
Read for the Manchester science fiction book club.
