The Martian.

Some novels take an ordinary life and quietly thread the impossible through it, so that the marvellous seems to grow out of the everyday. The Martian is one such story, blending realistic portraiture with a touch of the otherworldly.

What it's about

The novel follows the life of its central figure, an account of character and experience shadowed by the presence of a guiding influence said to come from beyond this world, from Mars. The narrative moves through the textures of an ordinary human life, friendship, love, work and loss, while suggesting that some deeper, unseen force is quietly shaping its course. The result is a curious hybrid, part sentimental romance, part imaginative fantasy, in which the strange element is felt more as mystery than as spectacle. Its unfolding is best met without foreknowledge.

Themes

Inspiration and its hidden sources, the influence of an unseen presence on a human destiny, and the border between the natural and the supernatural run through the book. It plays on the longing to believe that our lives are guided by something larger than ourselves.

Why it still matters

Fiction that mingles realism with the fantastic has a lasting appeal, and a tale that imagines otherworldly influence on an ordinary life carries a gentle, dreamlike charm. Read today, it offers both an absorbing life story and an intriguing early gesture toward the fantastic.

Who it's for

Readers who enjoy imaginative and fantastical fiction, lovers of the strange and the sentimental in equal measure, and anyone drawn to a story where the everyday and the otherworldly quietly meet.