The “present” is set in 2059-2060 and takes place in Italy, where Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz is being treated for his various injuries and illnesses after returning – as the sole survivor – from the planet Rakhat. I will not spoil anything of course, although I don’t believe knowing the end would take away from the emotional journey at all.
This story has taken me through all the emotions and left me crying like a baby. I finished this book a few nights ago and, honestly, I still feel raw. This experience–the first contact between human beings and intelligent extraterrestrial life–begins with a small mistake and ends in a horrible catastrophe. 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. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be “human”. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. Opening line: It was predictable, in hindsight. So you can add my voice to the many others screaming about how amazing this book is. Now I finally picked up this classic sci-fi story about Jesuit priests going to another planet in order to make first contact with an alien species and it was everything I had hoped plus a lot more.
Not in a hype sort of way, but I’ve stumbled across reviews and recommendations of this work a lot in the last decade. It’s on many favorite Science Fiction lists, it has won quite a few awards, and people are still talking about it. This is one of those books that keep coming up.
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