Contact A Novel

"[A novel about] humanity's first encounter with other intelligent beings. ... At its centre is a brilliant scientist, Eleanor Arroway ... It is she who is instrumental in decoding the Message [from the vicinity of the star Vega] - and in persuading world leaders not to treat it as a threat - she who finds her own life changed by the immense challenge of responding to the Message; she who finally journeys out to experience, in circumstances at once profoundly religious and scientific, the most fateful encounter in human history."--Jacket