The Sparrow

This was a beautiful novel, with the tragic shadow of Shūsaku Endō's Silence and the creative brilliance of Ursula K. Le Guin. Russell writes in very well-paced prose, departing from the monologue laden style of other sci-fi writers such as Asimov or Card and instead relies upon a carefully written narrative and well developed characters. I'm still digesting the theological undercurrent of this book, in the same way that Silence still remains with me years after I've read it, and I suppose this shouldn't surprise me as both books deal with the experience of a crisis of faith when one is far away from home in the composite genre which chronicles the tragic sacrifice of a martyr.

Grateful for the fans and librarians who are bringing Ms Russell to my town. I read the book for a discussion. It's a marvelous exploration of burdens accepted for love and the challenges of meeting other people. For me, destroys the extreme of cultural relativism: that is, I accept that there are interdependent systems so that other cultures do things differently, but I also treasure ideals of freedom, scholarship, and nurturing that measure the effects of cultures.