The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell [0]
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
1 - ROME: DECEMBER 2059
2 - ARECIBO RADIO TELESCOPE, PUERTO RICO: FEBRUARY 2019
3 - ROME: JANUARY 2060
4 - ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO: MARCH 2019
5 - CLEVELAND, OHIO: AUGUST 2014-MAY 2015
6 - ROME AND NAPLES: MARCH-APRIL 2060
7 - CLEVELAND AND SAN JUAN: 2015-2019
8 - ARECIBO: MAY 2019
9 - NAPLES: APRIL 2060
10 - SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO: AUGUST 2-3, 2019
11 - ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO: AUGUST 3,2019
12 - EARTH: AUGUST 3-4, 2019
13 - EARTH: AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2019
14 - NAPLES: MAY 2060
15 - SOLAR SYSTEM: 2021 THE STELLA MARIS: 2021-2022, EARTH-RELATIVE
16 - THE STELLA MARIS: 2031, EARTH-RELATIVE
17 - NAPLES: JUNE 2060
18 - THE STELLA MARIS: SEPTEMBER 2039, EARTH-RELATIVE
19 - LANDFALL, RAKHAT: OCTOBER 13, 2039, EARTH-RELATIVE
20 - NAPLES: JUNE 2060
21 - RAKHAT: MONTH TWO, CONTACT
22 - NAPLES: JUNE 2060
23 - CITY OF GAYJUR: SECOND NA’ALPA VILLAGE OF KASHAN: SEVEN WEEKS AFTER CONTACT
24 - VILLAGE OF KASHAN AND CITY OF GAYJUR: THIRD-FIFTH NA’ALPA
25 - NAPLES: JULY 2060
26 - VILLAGE OF KASHAN AND GREAT SOUTHERN FOREST: EIGHT WEEKS AFTER CONTACT
27 - VILLAGE OF KASHAN: SEVENTH NA’ALPA—FIFTH PARTAN
28 - NAPLES: AUGUST 2060
29 - VILLAGE OF KASHAN: YEAR TWO
30 - VILLAGE OF KASHAN AND CITY OF GAYJUR: YEAR THREE
31 - NAPLES: AUGUST 2060
32 - NAPLES: AUGUST 2060
Acknowledgements
The Sparrow
A Conversation with Mary Doria Russell
Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion
Excerpts from reviews of Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow
A Thread of Grace
Sainte-GisÈle on the Vesubie River Southeastern France
About the Author
Praise for "Compelling . . . Suspenseful."
Copyright Page
FOR MAURA E. KIRBY
AND
MARY L. DEWING
quarum sine auspicio hic
liber in lucem non esset
editas
PROLOGUE
IT WAS PREDICTABLE, in hindsight. Everything about the history of the Society of Jesus bespoke deft and efficient action, exploration and research. During what Europeans were pleased to call the Age of Discovery, Jesuit priests were never more than a year or two behind the men who made initial contact with previously unknown peoples; indeed, Jesuits were often the vanguard of exploration.
The United Nations required years to come to a decision that the Society of Jesus reached in ten days. In New York, diplomats debated long and hard, with many recesses and tablings of the issue, whether and why human resources should be expended in an attempt to contact the world that would become known as Rakhat when there were so many pressing needs on Earth. In Rome, the questions were not whether or why but how soon the mission could be attempted and whom to send.
The Society asked leave of no temporal government. It acted on its own principles, with its own assets, on Papal authority. The mission to Rakhat was undertaken not so much secretly as privately—a fine distinction but one that the Society felt no compulsion to explain or justify when the news broke several years later.
The Jesuit scientists went to learn, not to proselytize. They went so that they might come to know and love God’s other children. They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God.
They meant no harm.
1
ROME:
DECEMBER 2059
ON DECEMBER 7, 2059, Emilio Sandoz was released from the isolation ward of Salvator Mundi Hospital in the middle of the night and transported in a bread van to the Jesuit Residence at Number 5 Borgo Santo Spirito, a few minutes’ walk across St. Peter’s Square from the Vatican. The next day, ignoring shouted questions and howls of journalistic outrage as he read, a Jesuit spokesman issued a short statement to the frustrated and angry media mob that had gathered outside Number 5’s massive front door.
"To the best of our knowledge, Father Emilio Sandoz is the sole survivor of the Jesuit mission to Rakhat. Once again, we extend our thanks to the U.N., to the Contact Consortium and to the Asteroid Mining Division of Ohbayashi Corporation for making