The Sparrow
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell was published in 1996 by Villard Books. A direct sequel, Children of God, was published by the same publisher two years later.
Although it features space travel, two alien races, and future-Earth speculation, the book was not published as science fiction. Russell submitted it to a long series of science fiction publishers, and only took it to the mainstream press when she had received rejection letters from them all.
The Sparrow is told in two time sequences: the book begins with the desperate situation of Father Emilio Sandoz, the only survivor of the deep-space expedition to Rakhat. Sandoz is back on Earth, physically and emotionally damaged, and being protected by the Jesuit order from public and media pressure to tell his story. While the Church and the Jesuits are protecting Sandoz, forces within that fortress of protection disagree about how much he should be protected, and for how long. This story is told in alternate chapters, while the even-numbered chapters introduce us to the unlikely band of explorers who will eventually climb into a refurbished asteroid and take sail for Rakhat.
The voyagers include Sandoz and three other Jesuit priests: Father Alan Pace, Father Marc Robichaux, and Father D.W. Yarbrough, assigned as captain of the vessel. Along with the four priests are a middle-aged married couple, George and Ann Edwards, a young astronomer (Jimmy Quinn), and a gifted linguist and translator (Sofia Mendez). All are Catholics, with varying levels of commitment to the religion, except for Mendez, who is a Sefardic Jew. The expedition begins to come together after Quinn discovers musical transmissions from a planet near Alpha Centauri.
Because of the book's narrative structure, we know from the beginning that only Sandoz survived, that his hands are unusable, and that something too horrible to imagine happened to him on Rakhat. As we watch the expedition come together, we also watch Sandoz (with the help and sometimes hindrance of the Jesuits responsible for his care) slowly rebuild his psyche and tell his story. Once the expedition arrives on Rakhat and meets the alien Runa, the two stories begin to converge.
The Sparrow has won an impressive array of awards: the 2001 Kurd Lasswitz Preis (the German equivalent of the Nebula Award), the 2001 Spectrum Classics Hall of Fame, the 1997 Arthur C. Clarke Prize, the 1997 British Science Fiction Award, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
In addition, the book was a finalist for the Book-of-the-Month Club First Fiction Award.