“The two most engaging powers of an author: new things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new,” wrote Samuel Johnson – powers that Michel Faber exhibits in abundance in his astonishing novel, now published in a beautifully designed paperback edition. Developing his interest in science fiction, demonstrated in his first novel Under the Skin, Faber invents alien creatures, the Oasan, living on a new planet to which protagonist Peter is sent to be a Christian missionary. As time passes, the Oasan become familiar to Peter, while erstwhile normality grows stranger.
At first, Peter pines for his beloved wife, Bea, and for their cat, Joshua, sorely missing the people and places he has left behind, in a plot that brilliantly shows how it’s possible to be geographically distant and yet still emotionally entwined.
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