A review by dcunitz
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

4.0

"As many as thirty or as few as ten years later, lying exhausted and still, eyes open in the dark long after the three suns of Rakhat had set, no longer bleeding, past the vomiting, enough beyond the shock to think again, it would occur to Emilio Sandoz to wonder if perhaps that day in the Sudan was really only part of the set up for a punchline a lifetime in the making."