Mr. Spaceman — Robert Olen Butler

“A surprisingly sweet and droll first-person account of the vexed attempts of an alien to understand the bafflingly unpredictable human race.” -- Kirkus Reviews
 
The Pulitzer Prize�"winning author “raises fin de siècle literature to new heights and turns inevitability on its head” in a novel of an alien named Desi (Publishers Weekly).
 
For decades, Desi has kept a quiet vigil above the Earth while studying the confusing, fascinating, and frustrating primary species of our planet, occasionally venturing to the planet's surface to hear their thoughts and experience their memories using his empathic powers. Now, on December 31, 2000, he prepares for the final phase of his mysterious mission, which begins when he beams a tour bus bound for a Louisiana casino aboard his ship. The twelve passengers will be the last humans whose lives he will experience before he positions his spaceship in full and irrefutable view of the people of Earth and descends to the planet's surface to proclaim his presence to all of humanity at the turn of the millennium.
 
Poignant, funny, and charming, Mr. Spaceman is filled with unexpected twists and turns, a tribute to the powers of love and understanding and the essence of what it means to be human.
 
“Funny and humane, entertaining and touching.” -- The New York Times