Bewilderment

“That's the ruling story on our planet. We live suspended between love and ego. Maybe it's different in other galaxies. But I doubt it.”

This book is a beautiful build oscillating between awe and horror, leading into a heart-wrenching crescendo. If you wove together Everything is Illuminated, Flowers for Algernon, and Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (except with imagined planets), you would get this book. It's very topical, but will clearly transcend; I could see it being taught in schools someday.