Author of the bestselling The Crimson Petal and the White returns after twelve years with an all-out masterpiece about love and the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe.
'I am with you always, even unto the end of the world...'
From the author of Under the Skin and The Crimson Petal and the White, the first novel from Michel Faber in twelve years is a wildly original tale of adventure, faith and the ties that might hold two people together when they are worlds apart
Peter Leigh is a husband, a Christian, and now a missionary. As The Book of Strange New Things opens, he is set to embark on a journey that will be the biggest test of his faith yet.
From the moment he says goodbye to his wife, Bea, and boards his flight, he begins a quest that will challenge his religious beliefs, his love and his understanding of the limits of the human body.
This momentous novel is Faber at his expectation-defying best. It is a brilliantly compelling book about love in the face of death, and the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe.
About the Author
Michel Faber has written eight books. In addition to the Whitbread-shortlisted Under the Skin, he is the author of the highly acclaimed The Crimson Petal and the White, The Fire Gospel and The Fahrenheit Twins. He has also written two novellas, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps and The Courage Consort, and has won several short-story awards, including the Neil Gunn, Ian St James and Macallan. Born in Holland, brought up in Australia, he now lives in the Scottish Highlands
Industry Reviews
* Michel Faber's second masterpiece, quite different to The Crimson Petal and The White but every bit as luminescent and memorable. It is a portrait of a living, breathing relationship, frayed by distance. It is an enquiry into the mountains faith can move and the mountains faith can't move. It is maniacally gripping -- DAVID MITCHELL * As gripping as any thriller ... A work of originality and insight -- Andrew Billen The Times * There are some novels that come along, when writing a review seems superfluous and all one wants to do is to grab someone by the shoulders and say: "Look, just read the damn thing!". This is one of them ... In this thoughtful, deeply moving page-turner, Faber excels himself Scotsman * Magnificently bold and addictive ... a book quite unlike any other I've read -- Edmund Gordon Sunday Times * I can't remember being so continually and unfailingly surprised by any book for a long time. I found it completely compelling and believable, and admired it enormously -- PHILIP PULLMAN Highly imaginative, unusual and thought-provoking -- Katherine Whitbourn Daily Mail * Michel Faber is a truly gifted writer, an addictive storyteller with an nuanced command of language. One of the best things I have read this year Literary Review * The very notion of what it means to be human is grappled with in unusually direct terms ... richly suggestive -- Hannah McGill Independent * Spellbinding, heartbreaking and mind-bending ... Faber's strongest, most plangent and most intellectually gleeful novel. It is affecting as much as it is challenging. It not only made me want to read his next book, but re-read his backlist immediately Scottish Review of Books * At the heart of The Book of Strange New Things is one question: Whom - or what - do you love, and what are you willing to do for that love (or not willing)? The result is a novel of marvel and wonderment with a narrative engine like a locomotive -- YANN MARTEL * Weird and disturbing, like any work of genius, this novel haunted me for the seven nights I spent reading it, and haunts me still. A story of faith that will mesmerize believers and non-believers alike, a story of love in the face of the Apocalypse, a story of humanity set in an alien world -The Book of Strange New Things is desperately beautiful, sad, and unforgettable. -- DAVID BENIOFF, author of City of Thieves and co-creator HBO series, Game of Thrones * The Book of Strange New Things is indeed strange: a page-turner which manages to subvert every narrative expectation; a book about the future that forces you to reconsider the role of religion; a book about aliens that is mostly concerned with human love. It left me in a state of wonder and devastation -- KEVIN MacDONALD, director of One Day in September, Touching the Void and The Last King of Scotland * This is a man who could give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence Guardian * You are unlikely to regret a single hour/day/month spent in Faber's diverting, exuberant and intelligent company Financial Times
