The Sparrow

Emilio is angered to learn that none of the articles he and Sofia sent back to Earth were published. He says people died for that data, and this offends Johannes, who says they also died for Christ. Vincenzo explains that it’s best they didn’t publish the papers, considering the controversy of their mission. Emilio finds out for the first time that Sofia was sexually exploited as a child, and he wonders how she survived “being used like that […] with all the resources of an adult, it had destroyed him” (335).

Vincenzo promises him that once the hearings are over, they will reconsider publishing the papers. However, he tells Emilio that he didn’t make the trip for the data; instead, Emilio went because he believed God was calling him there. Vincenzo says that two of Emilio’s crewmates believed that he had seen the face of God. Vincenzo then asks Emilio to be upfront with what happened. Emilio replies, “Don’t ask me…ask God” (339).

Emilio is going down the stairs, and Edward catches up to him. Emilio says he feels like he’ll never get over what happened, and Edward tells him about the wife he lost in a car accident that was his fault. Emilio asks if he blamed himself, and Edward says that he went through a period where he blamed everyone except for God.

Anne awakes in the middle of the night feeling heartsick that Marc and Sofia are still gone and that the crew has lost correspondence with them. She can’t sleep, and so she talks to Emilio, who is still awake. Emilio says that Sofia and Marc will be back.

Anne wants to know how Emilio’s so certain. He quotes Deuteronomy and says, “You have seen with your own eyes what the Lord your God has done” (344). She says she’s seen what good humans have done, and he replies, “You’ve seen what…but not why! That’s where God is, Anne. In the why of it—the meaning” (344). Anne wonders where God would be if Sofia and Marc are dead. Emilio says, “God knows” (344). Anne says she can’t handle that, adding, “Either God’s in charge or He’s not” (345).

Marc and Sofia crash in the Ultra-Lite while trying to land. Marc wakes up first and has “no idea how long he’d lain unconscious. It was daylight when they crashed. Both moons were up now” (347). Eventually, Sofia wakes up as well, and she and Marc realize they’re okay but terribly bruised. That night, they sleep in the lander, and they decide that in the morning, they will fly the lander back instead of walking.

Sofia and Marc show up at the village in the lander. Everyone is excited that they are alive, but D.W. is visibly upset. He thinks, “It’s not our weaknesses but our strengths that have endangered us” (355). Sofia and Marc most likely burned all the fuel getting to the village, which means there won’t be enough to get back to the asteroid. In other words, they are stuck on Rakhat forever.

Anne examines Marc and Sofia and confirms that they’re okay. George blames himself for the lack of fuel in the lander since he’s the engineer behind the mission. The crew tries to think of reasonable ways to get the lander back, but none seems likely. Over the next few days, “they simply rested, each privately engaged in adjusting to the situation, learning to moderate the swings of hope and despond, trying to balance habitual optimism with sensible resignation” (363).

D.W. seems to get better, and then his health again declines. Anne thinks that maybe he’s picked up a parasite. He’s the only sick crewmember, and she begins dosing him with parasitotropics. Jimmy is taking good care of Sofia as she recovers. Emilio thinks about how there is a real possibility of long-term survival on the planet, but he also realizes that he feels like something inside him is dying. He realizes this feeling is the possibility of being Sofia’s husband and the father to their children: “He had not truly understood that he’d kept part of his soul open to that possibility until he’d seen Sofia in Jimmy Quinn’s arms in the rain and had felt a cold wash of violent jealousy” (365).

For the first time, he understands that celibacy is robbing him of more than sexual pleasure; it’s taking away his ability for human closeness. He decides that although no one in the crew would judge him for loving Sofia, God has been so good to him that he can’t take back his vows now: “It did not occur to him to wonder then if Sofia Mendes had been as much a gift from God as all the rest of the love he’d been offered, or if he had been God’s gift to her” (366).

Having resigned themselves to living the rest of their lives on Rakhat, the group decides to throw a party. D.W. shoots an animal, a piyanot, and they barbeque it while listening to music from the lander. In the midst of the joy, they see a figure coming toward them, but they aren’t alarmed because they have only ever encountered Runa, and they are “harmless as deer” (369). The figure is Supaari, who is so taken aback by the humans that he tries to swipe at Emilio’s head with his large claws. Thankfully, Emilio remembers his fighting days and is able to avoid the beheading and gets Supaari on the ground.

Once the misunderstanding is over, the group offers Supaari some coffee, and he says that’s exactly what he came for. The group learns that Supaari attacked Emilio because he thought the humans were poachers—since only poachers hunt meat without permission. Anne notes Supaari’s teeth and claws, and that unlike the Runa, he’s a carnivore. Supaari and the humans grow acquainted with each other, but it’s clear that Anne and Supaari are the fondest of each other because they share the same witty sense of humor.

John goes into the musty, dimly lit cellar of the retreat house to find Emilio doing laundry; this is Emilio’s new self-imposed job, and he seems happy to feel useful. His ability to do the laundry and fold it is also a sign of how well his hands are responding to the new braces.

The two go outside to hang the laundry, and they joke about movie references. John says he’s surprised that Emilio hasn’t asked about current events, considering he’s been away from Earth for such a long time, but Emilio says that after having lived in 30 different places, “[f]our continents, two islands […] [t]wo planets […][a]n asteroid [and][s]even or eight ecosystems, from desert to tundra,” his curiosity for new things is nonexistent (382). He says that doing laundry is now his speed.

Vincenzo, meanwhile, is rethinking his strategy regarding the hearings. He decides that getting information about the mission is vital, but he also wants to make sure that Emilio is receiving adequate pastoral care. To do so, he releases the private transcripts of the mission reports to the Jesuit priests because he believes that the transcripts might reveal the “private theological aspect to Emilio’s emotional problems” (383). He tells the group that something happened to Emilio that “changed everything. Until we know what that was, we are sailing in the dark” (384).

Everyone notices Emilio’s change in demeanor once the hearings reconvene. It’s clear that Emilio is feeling better physically, and that emotionally, he has learned to control himself by playing the part he knows the group wants him to play. Felipe begins the hearing by asking if the Runa believe in the idea of souls. Emilio says that they believe in the idea of heart. For the Runa, the concept of heart and illness were closely related, and “both served as a rather benign means of social control” (387). The Runa are a peaceful species, but if one of the Runa feels hurt by another, he or she will:

fall into a state of porai. When you are porai, your heart is sad and you may grow ill or become prone to accidents. Making someone sad is very bad form, yes? If you make someone else porai, you feel considerable social pressure to give in to the request or provide compensation to the supposed victim (387).

This compensation comes from either an apology or a gift.

The group also asks about the differences between the Runa and Jana’ata, and Emilio says that the male Jana’atas resemble the female Runa. Also, the “Runa sexual organs are inconspicuous until mating is imminent,” while the Jana’ata sexual organs are visible yet hidden behind clothing (389). Further, the Jana’ata “believe themselves to be stewards and guardians of the Runa. They take pride in doing their duty towards their inferiors and dependents” (391). Emilio adds that the Jana’ata are few in number compared to the prolific Runa, so they have an incentive to rule with a fair and kind hand.

Emilio goes on to say that somewhere early in their evolutionary process, the Jana’ata most likely evolved to resemble the Runa so that they could sneak into the Runa herds for hunting purposes. In other words, the Runa were always the Jana’ata’s prey, and the Jana’ata resemble the Runa as a form of mimicry. However, as the two species evolved, they began to work together for trading purposes, but with the Jana’ata still in control.

In fact, the Jana’ata control the populations of both species. For the Jana’ata, they can only have two children each. If they surpass two, the third and subsequent children must remain sterile for the duration of their lives. As such, thirds must be neutered or sleep with sterile partners to avoid conception. For the Jana’ata, “[s]ex with Runa partners carries no risk of pregnancy or even of disease [and] [f]or this reason, Runa concubines are commonly used as sexual partners by individuals whose families are complete or who are not permitted to breed” (394).

Felipe is shocked, wondering if the Runa consent to this. Emilio laughs and says that the concubines are bred for it. He adds, “The Runa are not unintelligent and some are marvelously talented, but they are essentially domesticated animals. The Jana’ata breed them, as we breed dogs” (394).

The chapter opens with, “Supaari Vagayjur, they found, was the ideal informant, a man who moved with knowledgeable ease between the Runa and the Jana’ata, able to see both ways of life from a point of view that few in either society shared” (395). Anne quickly grows fond of Supaari, but many of the others remain skeptical of him. However, they all agree that he is certainly more interesting than the Runa because he is witty and more closely resembles the humans’ energy levels than the Runa. Based on their interactions with Supaari, the humans have no way of knowing that he is an anomaly when it comes to the Jana’ata species.

Based on information that Supaari told her, Anne tells the group of the sexual dynamics between the Runa: The Runa women choose whom to marry based on who will be a good social father and husband, but they have children with mates who are chosen because of their genetic traits.

As Supaari sails back to the city, he ruminates on his interactions with the foreigners. The humans had given him a “fortune in exotica,” all enticingly aromatic things, like clove, cinnamon, and vanilla, not to mention beautifully drawn landscapes from Marc. Supaari realizes that these objects will make him a fortune and that the foreigners have no idea how priceless the objects are. Because the Runa are hosting the foreigners and thus responsible for Supaari’s soon-to-be-added-to wealth, the village “would move nearly a year ahead of schedule closer to breeding rights” (405).

During their second full year on Rakhat, the crewmembers are given their own apartments, which finally affords them all a little privacy and a sense of home. D.W., who is still often sick, stays in an open-air space close to the river. Anne, Sofia, and D.W. frequently interview Supaari when he visits, and they write up the interviews, emphasizing “Runa biology, social structure and economy,” and the trade rules between the Runa and Jana’ata.

Anne cares for Supaari so much that she lists him as one of the authors. Emilio continues to learn the languages, Marc continues painting the world around him, and Jimmy and George install plumbing and a pulley system that allows them to haul things up a cliff. The Runa remain welcoming of their presence.

Marc and George make a garden and share the food with the Runa. The gardens become a big hit, and they spread throughout the Runa villages. George and Jimmy desperately want to go to Supaari’s village and meet other Jana’ata, and they find it strange that Supaari never brings any other Jana’ata to the village and that, despite his promises, he never takes them to his city. D.W. continues to decline in health, and there’s nothing Anne can do about it, despite her best efforts.

Because the Runa now have continuous access to food from the gardens and don’t have to forage in the woods, they grow plumper. Hormone production increases, and the female Runa begin to go into heat and get pregnant. During this same time, Jimmy and Sofia begin dating. Jimmy proposes, and Sofia accepts. They get married and have a huge feast. On their wedding night, Sofia and Jimmy make love for the first time, and she tells him all about her past. He loves and accepts her, and by the end of the chapter, she’s pregnant.

Anne and D.W. take a walk in the early hours of the morning. By now, it’s clear that D.W. is dying, and everyone knows it will be soon. D.W. confides to Anne that he wants Jimmy to take charge after he dies. D.W. means to tell her to “watch that Supaari character, there was something about him, and Anne shouldn’t get blinded by sentiment. He meant to tell her how really happy he’d been, even these last months,” but instead, “death has its own agenda and its own logic, and it caught them both unaware, with less warning than they expected” (422).

Meanwhile, Marc, Jimmy, and George finally go to the city where Supaari lives. They have innumerous questions about how things are built, their navigation systems, their ideas about chemistry and science, and so on, but Supaari doesn’t know the answer to any of these questions. He says they can explore the city only at redlight, when the Jana’ata are sleeping, because it’s extremely important that other Jana’ata don’t spot them. They are also only allowed to travel with Supaari’s Runa secretary, Awijan.

The men feel assaulted by the city’s decadent smells and sights, but they sleep soundly that first night because they have beds that resemble the comforts of Earth. At noon the next day, they feast with Supaari, and that night, they explore the city again, finding it strange that “[t]here were no beggars, no limbless cripples, no emaciated loners picking through garbage or potbellied children tugging at weary despairing parents” (427).

George and Jimmy are finally able to talk to a chemist about the possibility of making a fuel that could power the lander, while Supaari takes Marc to see some Jana’ata art. Hiding Marc in a long robe and riding in a covered carriage so as not to be seen by other Jana’ata, Supaari takes him to an opulent hall. He informs Marc that he has paid enough so that they have the hall to themselves, but Marc still isn’t permitted to talk.

Marc watches a group of robed Jana’ata kneeling over bowls containing pigment while strange incense burns through the air. The Jana’ata chant and sway, and it reminds Marc of “the mood and awe of worship” (431). Marc starts to hallucinate, presumably from something in the incense, and he doesn’t remember leaving. By the time he returns to Supaari’s palace, he vaguely remembers seeing “three Runa publicly put to death, their throats slit as they knelt with their backs to the Jana’ata executioners, who stood behind them and drew their heavy claws across their victims’ throats” like butchers (431). That night, Awijan takes George and Jimmy to a Runa bar, and they all get intoxicated on a strange jelly-like substance.

The next day, Supaari takes the men back to their Runa village. Emilio and Sofia are standing on the bank as they approach, and their faces look ravaged. They all assume that D.W. has died since they all knew he was nearing the end, but then they find out that Anne has died, too. Apparently, a group of rogue Jana’ata poachers murdered Anne and D.W. and ate them.

George is devastated. The group shares stories about the deceased, and they decide that they will all sleep in the same room that night, considering the circumstances. With everyone asleep except Sofia and Jimmy, Sofia tells Jimmy what happened. Apparently, Sofia realized Anne and D.W. had been gone a long time, and she heard a strange noise, so she asked Emilio to come search for them with her. They did, and near the lander they found the mangled and dismembered bodies of D.W. and Anne.

Emilio immediately begins digging the graves. After laying the bodies to rest, Sofia and Emilio eat together, and she asks him to sleep next to her that night. She feels the baby move for the first time, and in her excitement, she places Emilio’s hand on her belly. He gets the wrong idea, and she begs his forgiveness. They embrace and fall asleep “with mourning as their chaperone” (445).

Emilio tells the other priests that the Runa return and try very hard to comfort the remaining crew and make them feel safe. Emilio begins having debilitating headaches, and Askama is afraid he might die. He considers her concern a turning point and tries to hide his mourning so as not to frighten her.

John and the others press Emilio to tell them about the surge of new Runa babies. Apparently, the gardens were responsible for the surge of new Runa life. However, it came with deadly consequences. Because the Runa weren’t yet given permission to breed from the Jana’ata, the Jana’ata came to the Runa village to kill the babies, which would then be used as meat. Emilio goes on to say that the Jana’ata breed the Runa specialists in the city very meticulously, and if something goes wrong, they eat the babies instead. Emilio feels responsible for everything that happened next, since he was part of planting the gardens.

After the Jana’ata officers come to kill the babies, Sofia realizes what’s happening and tells the Runa to fight back. She says, “We are many, they are few,” and walks forward to pick up one of the babies off the ground (451). After that, the whole village rushes forward to save their babies, and the Jana’ata officers are so shocked they start killing the Runa in an attempt to maintain order. Emilio, in his recounting, says the fight is a bloodbath. Sofia, George, and Jimmy are killed in the chaos, along with nearly two-thirds of the Runa villagers.

Marc and Emilio are immediately taken prisoner and are forced to follow the Jana’ata officers down the river. The Jana’ata go to other villagers and kill their babies. The Jana’ata force Emilio to eat the meat. Marc refuses. Apparently, Marc is aware that the meat they are being fed comes from the murdered baby Runa. Emilio admits that he continued to eat the meat even after he realized the truth and explains that it’s because he had grown numb by this point.

Supaari takes possession of Marc and Emilio, and almost immediately, he has the hasta’akala surgery performed on their hands. Marc slowly bleeds to death. Emilio survives. He tells the priests that he believed God was with him, and then he tells Vincenzo that he doesn’t view everything that’s happened to him as comedy or tragedy, but maybe as farce.

Content Warning: The following section contains depictions of rape that may be disturbing.

Emilio tells the priests that he was a “disappointment to Supaari” (459). Emilio and Supaari had never really gotten along, but they tried teaching each other their respective languages. Emilio guesses that he lived with Supaari for perhaps eight months before Supaari suddenly had him removed.

Sometime just past dawn, Emilio is beaten and escorted out of the palace to “the most spectacularly vulgar place he’d ever been in. It looked and smelled like a cheap whorehouse” (462).

He is kept in a cage with:

bizarre but beautiful Runa and some Jana’ata, and there were a few individuals whose species he was unaware of. The Runa who shared his cushioned captivity came to his assistance when he needed help because of his hands. They were extraordinarily affectionate and friendly and tried to make him feel a part of whatever odd society existed within the ornate and costly walls of Galatna Palace (462).

Emilio begins to think he’s being kept in a menagerie of sorts, like a zoo animal. He also begins to think he’s losing his mind because he can’t remember key details of his former life on Earth. He is nevertheless fed well and forces himself to exercise to keep his sanity.

Emilio has been kept in the cage naked, but one morning, guards come and give him a robe. He is “suddenly afraid, but he calmed himself with thoughts that would, very soon, shatter his soul. He said to himself: I am in God’s hands. Whatever happens now to me is God’s will” (465).

He is taken into an all-white room where he hears Supaari’s voice and assumes Supaari has come to take him back. Instead, a different Jana’ata comes into view. It’s Hlavin Kitheri, the poet, and immediately Emilio is filled with joy, as this is the creature that had brought the crew to Rakhat in the first place, and all along Emilio has meant to speak with him. Emilio wants to tell Kitheri:

When my people search for a name to give to the truth we feel at those moments, we call it God, and when we capture that understanding in timeless poetry, we call it praying. And when we heard your songs, we knew that you too had found a language to name and preserve such moments of truth. When we heard your songs, we knew they were a call from God, to bring us here, to know you (466).

He wants to say these things, but instead, his robe is removed, and he is left naked in front of Kitheri. Kitheri then rapes Emilio: “The penetration, when it came, made [Emilio] scream. Things became very much worse after that” (468).

Apparently, Kitheri bought Emilio from Supaari, and in return, Kitheri made Supaari a Founder, meaning he could now have a family of his own. Vincenzo is confused and wonders what Kitheri wanted with Emilio. Emilio says, “Why, the same thing a pederast wants with a little boy, I imagine. A nice, tight fit” (469). Vincenzo forces Emilio to admit that he wasn’t a sex worker but rather that he was raped. John says, “My God,” and Emilio replies:

Was it your God? […] that is my dilemma. Because if I was led by God to love God, step by step, as it seemed, if I accept that the beauty and rapture were real and true, then the rest of it was God’s will too, and that, gentlemen, is cause for bitterness (470).

Otherwise, if God had nothing to do with it, it means it was Emilio’s own doing. He says, “I was naked before God and I was raped” (470). Emilio then says it got worse. Apparently, Kitheri was excited by the smell of Emilio’s blood and fear, and while raping Emilio, Kitheri recited poetry. He even let his friends rape Emilio while he watched. It turns out that the songs that were picked up by Arecibo weren’t poetry but rather pornography describing the experience. Everyone in the room for the hearing is speechless as Emilio continues.

Once the novelty wore off, Kitheri kept Emilio is a dark room by himself because his screaming was disturbing the others in the cage. The guards continue to rape Emilio, and he decides that he will kill whoever comes into the room next. That person just happened to be Askama, but Emilio was so disoriented that he didn’t know what happened.

Emilio asks everyone to leave the hearing room but John. He asks him, “[I]f God did this, it is a hell of a trick to play on a celibate. And if God didn’t do it […] that make[s] me […] [a]n unemployed linguist with a lot of dead friends” (475).

In a different room, Felipe is angry with Vincenzo for forcing Emilio to give every little detail. However, Vincenzo says, “There are souls that try to carve themselves from their own formlessness. Broken and damaged as he is, Emilio Sandoz is still trying to find meaning in what happened to him. He is still trying to find God in it all” (477). He continues, “He is still held fast in formless stone, but he’s closer to God right now than I have ever been in my life. And I don’t even have the courage to envy him” (477).

The novel ends with Emilio asking Vincenzo if he can stay at the retreat house a while longer. He says he doesn’t know if he’s still a priest and doesn’t know anything with certainty, but Vincenzo says that he can stay for as long as he likes. Then Vincenzo says, “I’m sending another group out. To Rakhat. I thought you ought to know that. We could use your help. With the languages” (482). Emilio says it’s too soon to think about that and leaves Vincenzo’s room.