I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

I chose to read this book as the premise intrigued me. There can't be many other instances of astronomy and botany being linked in literature.

It sounded like it could be quite an intense book from the description. I wasn't put off by the whole story being told through the emails of a single character: I had doubts that it would be as effective as it was. Through this method of telling the story we only see the personality of one character, and a little of Arthur. The other characters and events in the book may or not be portrayed accurately; they are as Jess wants Arthur to see them. It's up to the reader to work it out.

At first I was a little disappointed that the botanical aspect of the story is a bit of an aside to the space travel aspect (as I dabble in it myself). But I think it was there to show the contrast between Jess and her husband, as earth sciences and astronomy are as far away from each other as you can get. Jess and Liam didn't really understand each other. Liam was undoubtedly affected in many ways by the crash, but Jess made no real reference to this, choosing instead to talk mainly about her feelings. Liam didn't seem to notice for a long time that Jess was confiding in Arthur as she was. The change in their relationship at the end didn't surprise me at all.

Arthur sounded like an interesting character, although he sounded a bit stereotypical. It made me chuckle when, in the middle of a crisis Jess was having, he was still asking her about his data sets. It seemed to me as though he was happy to be distant from what was going on. I've been in a situation where I have been in email correspondence with someone who wasn't really interested, and it was quite similar to what was portrayed here.

In all I enjoyed the book, it was a quick read with nice touches of humour amid the stressful situations the main characters found themselves in. I will read it again at some point as it seems like a book that might be better the second time around.



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Botanist Jessica Frobisher and her husband Liam live a normal life in their Michigan home until a disaster strikes Liam’s space tourism company, Spaceco. In the midst of legal battles and increasing pressures, Jessica and Liam agree to be followed by documentary cameras in hopes of polishing Spaceco’s name. Instead, the cameras capture both the family and the company’s gradual decline.

In a total diversion from common narratives, God is an Astronaut is written completely in Jess's e-mails to a former colleague without giving readers insight into his responses. Though it takes several pages to get a feel for the style, the format soon takes shape and works well as a sort of quasi diary. Jess gives readers an uninterrupted, unedited and often hilarious account of the events unfolding around her while slowly revealing the secrets that bind her to her colleague and push her away from her family.

Continue reading at River City Reading ( )

This was an entertaining book which kept my interest although not particularly "deep". The book is made up of e-mails from a botany professor to her former lover as her husband's space exploration company confronts the media outrage after a fatal explosion. Coping with the media, both hostile and perhaps benign, become the focus of the book. There's also a trip to space by the narrator and the dissolution of her marriage. ( )

This book consists entirely of emails, almost exclusively sent by Jessica, a botany professor, to her colleague, Arthur, who is on sabbatical doing research in Canada. Jessica (who has recently had an affair with Arthur) is married to Liam. Liam works for Spaceco, which sends rich people into space for an orbit of the earth. At the beginning of the book one of Spaceco's rockets has exploded on take off, killing the six people on board. We hear of what Jessica does during the aftermath of the disaster (avoid the media, ask Liam what went wrong etc) by way of her emails. Although we can intuit pieces of what Arthur must have replied, we never see any of his responses. Eventually, as part of the damage control, Jessica agrees to have a documentary film made leading up to the next Spaceco launch and (along with the film makers) agrees to be one of the passengers.

Once I had got used to it, I quite liked the email format and there were moments of humour, particularly around Jessica's children or her colleagues at the university. On the other hand, I found some of the motivations confusing: I had assumed that Jessica was working her way towards leaving Liam for Arthur, but then she agreed to go on the next space flight and Arthur (understandably as the novel is framed) took that as a rejection. Jessica had previously stated that she had no interest in going into space, but she did not seem to be trying to repair her relationship with Liam and indeed apparently deliberately sabotages it at the end. It is also revealed that her relationship with Arthur ended the first time because she enthused to him about the excitement of a previous trip taken by Liam. However, Arthur had months previously to that already committed to going to Canada without telling her and his attitude to the relationship is not clear to me.

I found it annoying that Jessica was so clueless and head in the sand about the space disaster - she is a professor and in a science discipline. Why are women so often portrayed as unable to asses and react to situations practically and dispassionately? ( )

The meaning of the title of God is an Astronaut didn’t really make sense to me until the very end of the book – and even not very much then! Don’t be put off by the title – this is not about religion, nor excessively about space. The novel is told in a series of emails (107, the cover tells me) between our main character Jess (only her mum calls her Jessica) and work colleague at the university, Arthur. He’s gone off into the wilds for research, while Jess is stuck at home, teaching and tending to her children in between digging a greenhouse. Then disaster strikes as her husband’s space tourism company has a failed launch, killing all on board. Life changes dramatically with journalists in the garden, neighbours and friends acting strangely and then an awkward proposition. As the emails continue, we find out more about Jess and Arthur’s relationship and the strain on her marriage with Liam.

Jess appears lonely at first. Liam’s off fighting PR fires and she has nobody to talk to about a lawsuit against Spaceco, a dead pregnant woman or the problems with the children. She pours out her worries and grief to Arthur in between shopping sprees at Home Depot (which I guess is like Bunnings in Australia). Her university life is disappointing; sometimes it seems that the only person interested in botany is her. We never read Arthur’s words back to Jess, but it becomes clear that he knows her very well. Exceptionally well – enough to admonish her and encourage her. We already know that things aren’t so good with her husband.

Then, in a PR blitz, a filmmaker wants to make a documentary about Spaceco. How better to reassure the public of the safety of space travel than by sending up a wife and mother – i.e. Jess? In her preparation, Jess faces up to her fears and starts to take control. It’s not necessarily a happy time, but a time of learning.

I found God is an Astronaut to be a gentle read that sneaks up on you – at first, I found it a little hard to get into, only knowing Jess’s side of things, but the story got more involved as I realised what was going on with Jess’s relationships with Arthur and Liam. I liked the way the tone of the emails became more tense and snappy in the lead up to Jess’s flight, reflecting her fears. The email format holds more mystery for the plot, as we only had Jess’s word for it (and sometimes weren’t even sure if that was true as she seems to bury her head in the sand a lot!). I think the format made the story more alluring and mysterious. Well worth a read if you like a change from the norm – after all, what are you revealing in your emails?

Thanks to Bloomsbury Sydney for the ARC.

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