Usual disclaimer: I completed this book some months ago and just now am getting around to writing the review.

She is currently working on the sequel to The Sparrow, titled Children of God. Mary Doria Russell lives in Cleveland, Ohio, ('and likes it very much, thank you') with her husband, Don, and their son, Daniel. Writing The Sparrow allowed me to weigh the risks and the benefits of a belief in God, to examine the role of religion in the lives of many people.' That's why I chose to write about men who are collectively among the most admirable and best educated of Catholic priests, the Jesuits. Asked why she created such a detailed look at faith in a higher power and religion in her debut novel, Russell explains, 'I wanted to evaluate, as an adult, issues that had lain dormant for me since adolescence, to study the religion of my youth, to revisit the source of my values and ethics. Russell estimates, however, that 'only about twenty-two anthropologists, world-wide, read my academic publications and nobody reads computer manuals, so I figured that if even just my friends read my novel, I'd be way ahead in terms of readership because I have a lot of friends.'Ī recent convert to Judaism, Russell has nevertheless maintained a strong connection with the Catholic education of her childhood. In her own words, she admits, 'I had a great time, published a lot of stuff, won a bunch of awards and grants, but eventually got fed up with academia and quit.' Making the transition from scientific and technical writing to fiction wasn't easy.

Prior to The Sparrow, Russell had only written scientific articles-on subjects ranging from bone biology to cannibalism-and technical manuals for medical equipment as complex as nuclear magnetic resonance scanners. In the process of earning her degrees, Russell studied linguistics, genetics, anatomy, archaeology, and geology-all of which have found their way into her critically acclaimed debut novel. in Biological Anthropology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. in Social Anthropology from Northeastern University, and her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Illinois-Urbana, her M.A.

The sparrow mary doria russell summary