"The Book of Strange New Things" by Michel Faber, 2014

"The Book of Strange New Things" by Michel Faber, 2014

Aliens, space travel, planet-colonization—The Book of Strange New Things feels poised to read like science fiction. Instead, it is a deeply sad and wrenching work about the intricacies of married life.

Peter, the protagonist, travels to the planet of Oasis where we serves as the Earth's missionary preaching God's word to the natives. Meanwhile, Peter's wife, Bea, remain on Earth and continues her life and communicate with each other via a sort of "space email" called "the shoot."

As the story unfolds, Peter and Bea start to experience very different lives. They were both used to experiencing everything together that life threw at them. While Peter was welcomed by natives grew his congregation on Oasis, Bea starts to freak out about all the calamities on Earth.  And so Peter is put in the position of having to choose between the work he does for his God, and love that he has for his wife.

While Peter's mission is ostensibly the pole around which the rest of the novel revolves, it's the story of a marriage in crisis that clearly resonates.  The natives' settlement on Oasis, the collapse of modern society on earth, life of the base on the alien planet, the passing of their cat-- are only mechanisms that keep Peter and Bea from understanding each other.

The book comes in at lengthy 500 pages and heavily laden with religious exposition.

My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars) - I really liked it.

NY Times review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/books/review/michel-fabers-book-of-strange-new-things.html?_r=0