The Man Who Fell to Earth

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What to expect

The remarkable novel upon which the stunning cult film was based.

'Beautiful ... The story of an extraterrestrial visitor from another planet is designed mainly to say something about life on this one' NEW YORK TIMES

Thomas Jerome Newton is an extraterrestrial from the planet Anthea, which has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars, and whose inhabitants are twice as intelligent as human beings. When he lands on Earth - in Kentucky, disguised as a human - it's with the intention of saving his own people from extinction. Newton patents some very advanced Anthean technology, which he uses to amass a fortune. He begins to build a spaceship to help the last 300 Antheans migrate to Earth. Meanwhile, Nathan Bryce, a chemistry professor in Iowa, is intrigued by some of the new products Newton's company brings to the market, and already suspects Newton of being an alien. As Bryce and the FBI close in, Newton finds his own clarity and sense of purpose diminishing.

Discover the book which inspired the classic film with David Bowie and the new Paramount+ series with Chiwetel Ejiofor!

Critics Review

  • Beautiful science fiction…(Newton) acquires a moving, tragic force as the stranger, caught and destroyed in a strange land… The story of an extraterrestrial visitor from another planet is designed mainly to say something about life on this one

    NEW YORK TIMES
  • An utterly realistic novel about an alien human on Earth … realistic enough to become a metaphor for something inside us all, some existential aloneness

  • Tevis writes … with power and poetry and tension

    WASHINGTON POST
  • One of the finest science fiction novels of its period

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