The Sparrow: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Praise for The Sparrow
“A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News
“[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today
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Mary Doria Russell. (2008). The Sparrow: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Mary Doria Russell. 2008. The Sparrow: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2008.
MLA Citation (style guide)Mary Doria Russell. The Sparrow: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2008.
| Library | Owned | Available |
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There are 9 holds on this title.
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- bioText: Mary Doria Russell has been called one of the most versatile writers in contemporary American literature. Widely praised for her meticulous research, fine prose, and compelling narrative drive, she is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Sparrow, Children of God, A Thread of Grace, Dreamers of the Day, Doc, and Epitaph. Dr. Russell holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology. She lives in Lyndhurst, Ohio.
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- A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
Praise for The Sparrow
“A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News
“[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today - seriesId
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- content: "It is science fiction brought back to the project with which it began inthe hands of a writer like Jules Verne: the necessity of wonder, the hopefor moral rectitude, and the possibility of belief."
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- source: Science Fiction Weekly
- content: "Russell's debut novel...focuses on her characters, and it is here thatthe work truly shines. An entertaining infusion of humor keeps the bookfrom becoming too dark, although some of the characters are so clever thatthey sometimes seem contrived. Readers who dislike an emphasis on moraldilemmas or spiritual quests may be turned off, but those who enjoyscience fiction because it can create these things are in for a realtreat."
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- source: San Francisco Chronicle
- content: "The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace andintelligence."
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- source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- content: "The Sparrow is an incredible novel, for one reason. Though it isset in the early twenty-first century, it is not written like most sciencefiction. Russell's novel is driven by her characters, by their complexrelationships and inner conflicts, not by aliens or technology."
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- content: "It is rare to find a book about interplanetary exploration that has thismuch insight into human nature and foresight into a possible future."
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- source: Entertainment Weekly
- content: "By alternating chapters that dramatize Sandoz's tough-love interrogationwith flashbacks to the mission's genesis, flowering, and tragic collapse,The Sparrow casts a strange, unsettling emotional spell, bouncingreaders from scenes of black despair to ones of wild euphoria, from thebracing simplicity of pure adventure to the complicated tangles ofnonhuman culture and politics.--The smooth storytelling and gorgeouscharacterization can't be faulted."
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September 2, 1996
An enigma wrapped inside a mystery sets up expectations that prove difficult to fulfill in Russell's first novel, which is about first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. The enigma is Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit linguist whose messianic virtues hide his occasional doubt about his calling. The mystery is the climactic turn of events that has left him the sole survivor of a secret Jesuit expedition to the planet Rakhat and, upon his return, made him a disgrace to his faith. Suspense escalates as the narrative ping-pongs between the years 2016, when Sandoz begins assembling the team that first detects signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and 2060, when a Vatican inquest is convened to coax an explanation from the physically mutilated and emotionally devastated priest. A vibrant cast of characters who come to life through their intense scientific and philosophical debates help distract attention from the space-opera elements necessary to get them off the Earth. Russell brings her training as a paleoanthropologist to bear on descriptions of the Runa and Jana'ata, the two races on Rakhat whose differences are misunderstood by the Earthlings, but the aliens never come across as more than variations of primitive earthly cultures. The final revelation of the tragic human mistake that ends in Sandoz's degradation isn't the event for which readers have been set up. Much like the worlds it juxtaposes, this novel seems composed of two stories that fail to come together. BOMC, QPB and One Spirit Book Club selections.
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Starred review from September 1, 1996
When readers meet Father Emilio Sandoz, he's a wreck, inside and out. His hands are maimed, his body bruised; he suffers from scurvy, anemia, and spiritual devastation. The year is 2059. Although Jesuit missionaries thrive on suffering, something particularly dire has happened to this skilled linguist. Four decades earlier, he proposed an expedition to discover the sentient beings whose strange yet beautiful music had been detected by radio telescope. As the only survivor of this spiritual odyssey to Alpha Centauri (the star system four light years from Earth), Sandoz was found dazed and filled with terror by rescuers who inferred that he had resorted to prostitution to stay alive. Returned to the Jesuit Order, Sandoz is forced to face truths about the godless alien societies on the planet Rakhat that he and his colleagues grew to know, love, and perish at the claws of. Miscommunications, misplaced trust, and tiny mistakes led to their downfall. The dense prose in this complex tale may at first seem off-putting, but hang on for the ride; it's riveting! Russell's first novel is also a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)
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Starred review from October 1, 1996
%% This is a multi-book review: SEE also the title "Biblical Women Unbound." SEE the title "Conquered Heart" for next imprint and review text. %% ((Reviewed Oct. 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)
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Praise for The Sparrow
“A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle
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