In The Book of Strange New Things, Michel Faber (Under the Skin; The Crimson Petal and the White) continues to expand the cutting-edge of literature as he explores a marriage in crisis in a novel about evangelizing an alien world.
Peter Leigh is a missionary sent to Oasis, a recently discovered planet light years away. His wife, Bea, is left back on Earth, where the situation becomes increasingly desperate, possibly apocalyptic. Their solid, loving relationship is reduced to fumbling, intermittent communications through typewritten notes, as they try to share their diametrically opposed experiences: Peter reaches euphoric moments with his Jesus-loving alien brethren (who call the Bible the Book of Strange New Things), while Bea is increasingly desperate and isolated back home as the world suffers a series of unprecedented natural disasters. Faber manages to convey the emotional rawness and sense of how a few wrong words can send a relationship hurtling into dangerous realms.
The speculative aspects of Faber's novel are seamless, intriguing and ultimately shocking, and his descriptions of the planet have that touch of the odd and sublime (on Oasis, even the rain is different). The Oasans are a fully realized species, and why they are so keen, even desperate, to hear the "technique of Jesus" is one of the surprises Faber has in store. Faber manages to weave echoes of imperialism and "white man's burden" into the narrative without making Peter into a straw man of an overzealous evangelist.
The Book of Strange New Things is an unsettling, thought-provoking exploration of faith, love and redemption, deserving of a wide audience. --Donald Powell, freelance writer