The Sparrow By Mary Doria Russell -

And Emilio does. In fragments. In fury. In tears. The narrative weaves back and forth between the hopeful, joyous journey to Rakhat and the grim, present-day interrogation of a man destroyed by what he found there.

And then he tells Emilio something extraordinary. The radio signal from Rakhat? It has not stopped. The music is still playing. And the Jesuits have decoded more of it. The very first piece of data ever transmitted, the very first song of the universe, was not a greeting or a scientific treatise. the sparrow by mary doria russell

But the humans did not understand this at first. They saw a garden. Emilio, with his gift for tongues, quickly learned the language of the Runa. He made a friend: a gentle Runa named Supaari. He also met the Jana’ata, particularly a philosopher-poet named Askama. Emilio charmed everyone. He played music for them on his Spanish guitar, and they wept with joy. And Emilio does

For a while, it was a dream.

It was a lullaby.