I was invited back to one of my favorite book podcasts, The Best Book Ever Podcast, hosted by Julie Strauss. This was my third appearance on the podcast and we discussed one of my all-time favorite novels, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber.  Faber’s literary, genre-bending novel deals with faith, marriage, space colonization, and post apocalypticism in an unique, thought-provoking manner.

I just reread the novel for a second time recently and in the podcast I speak about how a supporting character becomes much more an important part of the story that I realized after reading initially in 2015.

In closing, I want to publicly thank Julie Strauss for being open to books she would not have picked up on her own without my recommendations.  She shared that the three books we’ve discussed on the podcast episodes: Memory & Dream by Charles de Lint, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, and The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber uses the framework of fantasy and science fiction to ask big questions about life and our place as human beings in it.  Correct. Reading fiction for me has been much more than pleasure or comfort reading but an exploration or journey into things outside of my everyday perspective. Reading is one of those safe spaces to explore without restriction.  Art is meant to break down barriers and to have someone take a chance of reading outside of their normal way means a lot.

You can listen to the podcast here:

https://bestbookever.libsyn.com/149-marion-hill-on-the-book-of-strange-new-things-by-michel-faber