The Sparrow

I'm pretty sure Scooter is talking about The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. My book club just read it a few months ago. Liked it pretty well. (There's a sequel, Children of God, that I have not read. The main priest who survives in The Sparrow returns to the planet.)

M.D. Russell recently wrote a forward for a reprinting of A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., a book Michael read, and had me read, about two decades ago. It's vaguely similar to Sparrow in that it's sci-fi involving priests. I encouraged my book club to read Canticle largely because of Russell's enthusiasm for it (because they'd loved her WWII Italian resistance novel Thread of Grace), but they didn't enjoy it. I loved Canticle because it explores juicy themes about sin, redemption, cycles of violence, responsibility, religion, science, the quest for knowledge and its consequences.

[Update: I just realized Scooter said he read the second of a pair, so maybe he read Children of God.]