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If ever there was a science fiction book for those who don't like science fiction, The Sparrow is it. When the novel opens, we meet Father Emilio Sandoz, sole survivor of a failed Jesuit mission to Alpha Centauri. That's right. Priests in Space. Using a dual narrative structure in alternating chapters, we go back to learn how this bizarre mission came to be, while in the "present" we follow the efforts of Emelio's religious superiors to find out what happened to the broken man. And Emelio is broken, in both mind, faith and body. There are terrible rumors about what happened to him on the alien planet they visited, but Emelio is too traumatized to explain the mission's colossal failure. Watching the efforts of this broken priest to come to grips with his experiences is a grueling thing to read. But knowing the end somehow does not detract from the other narrative, which is how it began and unfolded. It seems that a signal is picked up at a remote radio observatory in Puerto Rico; a signal that sounds like singing. But it is singing that could not possibly be from earth. The technician who discovered the signal is friends with Father Emelio Sandoz, a parish priest working in the slums of Puerto Rico. Emelio, the technician Jimmy, and a handful of other vividly drawn and achingly real characters end up signing on to be the ones to find out where the signal is coming from. In the author's near-future world, national powers have shifted, but the Catholic Church still has resources. As they arrange the mission, and we bond so completely with the characters as they prepare and carry out their mission, that you will yourself to forget that only one will survive. The author, Mary Doria Russell has a anthropology background, which shows in the careful way she creates the alien societies that our missionaries encounter. This is a novel that deals with issues of religion, but without ever being heavy-handed or preachy. I'm an atheist through and through, but I found it fascinating how other people use faith to try and understand their experiences. Religion and science fiction could be a tough sell on their own, much less in the ingenious combo you get here. But Russell uses the formal framework of religion to tap into the truer issue of what it means to have faith, and the science fiction framework to examine what it means to be human. I've read this book twice, and both times it made me cry, but left me immensely satisfied.