The front cover of the sparrow includes a quotation stating that the book is ‘compulsive reading and may be the year’s best science fiction novel.’ And declares that it is the ‘winner of the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award. This information would normally be quite enough to put me off reading it. I am not a SF fan at all. In fact I think I have only read a couple in my whole life and I wasn’t impressed. So although a friend gave me this book because he wanted to know what I thought about it. The book sat unread for rather a long time – another book on the ever growing heap and yet another task on my long list of things to do.

The story is set in this century in the not too distant future. It opens in the year 2060 and introduces the main character Father Emilio Sandoz a Jesuit priest who is the sole survivor of a mission to Rakhat, a planet in Alpha Centauri. He has returned a broken man in a broken body accused of prostitution and murder. We are told only this much at the beginning of the book and have to read another 500 pages to discover the facts behind this tragic man.

Although Sandoz is the focus he is just one of a fascinating group of characters who are involved in the expedition. The congenial catalyst couple George, a retired engineer, and Anne Edwards, a medical doctor, happily married for 40 years who welcome friends and colleagues into their home. Their friends include Jimmy Quinn and Sophia Mendes initially described as a ‘vulture’ turns out to be an attractive woman with a brilliant mind embroiled in a scaringly believable futuristic form of slavery.
After these friends have enjoyed a memorable evening which includes an inspiring and significant musical interlude Jimmy Quinn returns to his work on SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at the Arecibo Radio telescope in Puerto Rico and picks up a signal which he realises is in fact exquisite choral music. He calls in his friends for their opinion and Sandoz, an outstanding linguist, is so moved by the music that he contacts his superiors. While the wheels of the scientific world continue to circle at their normal slow pace the Jesuits decide to finance a private mission to investigate the source of the beautiful and ethereal music ‘for the glory of God’.

On Rakhat they eventually come across two species of sentient beings, first the rural Juna and then the Jana’ata and the complex relationships and emotions aroused are challenging. Culturally formed perceptions are challenged, appearances prove to be deceptive, a few well intentioned words and actions have a far deeper impact than could possibly be imagined.