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Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell (born August 19, 1950) is a retired American novelist.
Russell was born in Elmhurst, Illinois.
She graduated from Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Illinois.
Russell's first two novels, The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God (1998)—sometimes called the Sparrow series or Emilio Sandoz sequence—(Random House Villard in 1996 and 1998) are speculative fiction novels focused on the religious and psychological implications of first contact with aliens. Both explore the problem of evil (theodicy) and how to reconcile a benevolent, omniscient, all-powerful deity with lives filled with undeserved suffering.
The Sparrow won the Arthur C. Clarke, BSFA, and Tiptree annual science fiction book awards (below), and it was the basis for Russell winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1998.
For The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, chief editor John Clute calls Russell an "author who established a strong reputation for cognitive subtlety and narrative power in her brief [science fiction] career; after the Emilio Sandoz sequence ... she turned her interest to other fields."
The rest of Russell's novels have been categorized as historical novels, although she draws from a variety of genres when telling these stories.
A Thread of Grace (Random House, 2005) is a World War II thriller set in Northern Italy and features both the Italian resistance movement and the plight of Jewish refugees escaping Nazi persecution throughout Europe. Much of the story is based on accounts by survivors from the period, when many Italian citizens allowed Jews to seek safe harbor in their farmlands, cities, and ports. (Russell herself is of Italian heritage and is a convert to Judaism.)
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Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell (born August 19, 1950) is a retired American novelist.
Russell was born in Elmhurst, Illinois.
She graduated from Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Illinois.
Russell's first two novels, The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God (1998)—sometimes called the Sparrow series or Emilio Sandoz sequence—(Random House Villard in 1996 and 1998) are speculative fiction novels focused on the religious and psychological implications of first contact with aliens. Both explore the problem of evil (theodicy) and how to reconcile a benevolent, omniscient, all-powerful deity with lives filled with undeserved suffering.
The Sparrow won the Arthur C. Clarke, BSFA, and Tiptree annual science fiction book awards (below), and it was the basis for Russell winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1998.
For The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, chief editor John Clute calls Russell an "author who established a strong reputation for cognitive subtlety and narrative power in her brief [science fiction] career; after the Emilio Sandoz sequence ... she turned her interest to other fields."
The rest of Russell's novels have been categorized as historical novels, although she draws from a variety of genres when telling these stories.
A Thread of Grace (Random House, 2005) is a World War II thriller set in Northern Italy and features both the Italian resistance movement and the plight of Jewish refugees escaping Nazi persecution throughout Europe. Much of the story is based on accounts by survivors from the period, when many Italian citizens allowed Jews to seek safe harbor in their farmlands, cities, and ports. (Russell herself is of Italian heritage and is a convert to Judaism.)