The Sparrow

The year is 2019, and we watch as the charismatic Jesuit priest Emilio gathers a close group of friends. We watch as they discover aliens. We watch as they go to Rakhat. The year is 2059, we watch a broken and alone Emilio return to earth. Just as God watches the sparrow fall.

The bad: The actually is quite a bit of swearing. And the story doesn't shy away from the nitty-gritty of life. Spoiler ! There is one graphic rape scene! (I saw this idea of putting the spoiler in white so that you have to highlight it to see it and I though it was a wonderful idea, so now I'll be doing that.)

The good/My view: I don't really know how to distinguish the two, so I thought I would just put them together. I thought this was a shocking, awful, beautiful and challenging book. It's not an easy read, logistically (she keeps skipping around and not explaining things clearly) and because you know something awful is coming. This is a highly 'religious' book, but that is something that interests me. It deals with the question that plague us all, Why should we trust in (believe in) a God that lets horrible things happen? Ms. Russell says, "Either it's blind dumb luck, or God is vicious." Taken from the Bible passage in Matthue 10:29, "not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. " The title reminds us that the sparrow still falls. But why?