The Sparrow (novel) - Literary Significance and Reception

Literary Significance and Reception

A reviewer at the Library Journal felt that this book was mistakenly categorized as science fiction, and that it is really "a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm".

Commonweal believes that Russell has done her research on the early historic Jesuit missions and on Jesuit spirituality. They feel that she is successfully updating the stories of other important Jesuits who have sent men to distant lands or went themselves to foreign cultures to represent Christianity. They say that "Russell subtly raises concerns about the ways in which sophisticated cultures tell themselves cover stories in order to justify actions taken at a terrible cost to others". This is also reflected in the way that Sofia has to buy her freedom from what she describes as an institution of intellectual prostitution; as well as the differences between the simple Runa who live in the country side and the Jana'ata, who are the sophisticated city dwellers that created the beautiful music the mission was originally searching for.