Also by Michel Faber
Some Rain Must Fall and Other Stories
Under the Skin
The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps
The Courage Consort
The Crimson Petal and the White
The Fahrenheit Twins
The Apple
The Fire Gospel
THE BOOK OF
STRANGE NEW
THINGS
Michel Faber
Published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2014 by Canongate Books
Copyright © Michel Faber, 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
ISBN: 978 1 78211 406 2
Export ISBN: 978 1 78211 407 9
ePub ISBN: 978 1 78211 409 3
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful to be notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
Typeset in Perpetua, ITC OfficinaSans LT Book and We Come In Peace by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
For Eva, always.
CONTENTS
1 Forty minutes later he was up in the sky
2 He would never see other humans the same way again
3 The grand adventure could surely wait
5 Just as he recognised them for what they were
6 His whole life had been leading up to this
8 Take a deep breath and count to a million
10 The happiest day of my life
11 He realised for the first time that she was beautiful, too
12 Looking back, almost certainly, that was when it happened
13 The engine kindled into life
15 Hero of the moment, king of the day
16 Toppling off an axis, falling through space
17 Still blinking under the word ‘here’
18 I need to talk to you, she said
19 He would learn it if it killed him
20 Everything would be all right if she only could
26 He only knew that thanks were due
NB There is script throughout the book used to denote the Oasan language – the appearance of these characters is intentional and does not constitute an error in the text
I
THY WILL BE DONE
1
Forty minutes later he was up in the sky
‘I was going to say something,’ he said.
‘So say it,’ she said.
He was quiet, keeping his eyes on the road. In the darkness of the city’s outskirts, there was nothing to see except the tail-lights of other cars in the distance, the endless unfurling roll of tarmac, the giant utilitarian fixtures of the motorway.
‘God may be disappointed in me for even thinking it,’ he said.
‘Well,’ she sighed,