science fiction...book title and author...a long shot.

[Babz]

I read this book about 5 years ago and wish I'd kept it to read again. I have no idea of the title but it was in the future, a group of astronauts including a married couple set off to another planet, can't remember why, I don't think they were aware of life on that planet until they got there. They were a human shaped race but to show that their upper classes didn't need to do manual work their knuckles were broken so that their fingers hung loose. Gradually the astronauts died for one reason or another, the husband of the married couple made the journey back to Earth for some reason and when he got back to this other planet his wife had died. I think in the end only one was left alive and his life was a bit of a nightmare. It was a good book and not particlarly new but that's all I remember. Has anyone any idea what I'm talking about???

[Tom Braider]

Plot you describe has some things in common with "Farnham's Freehold" by Robert A Heinlein... worth a read, even if it's not the book you remember!

[Babz]

Thank you, I've just had a look on the library online site and ordered one or two of his books from my local library, I don't think any of them are the one I'm after but they look as though they might be good.

[cancross]

There's also some similarity to Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell (especially the damages hands and fingers).

See here: http://worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=421

[Babz]

cancross....I think that is the one! I'd obviously forgotten more of the story than I thought. Thanks very much, I've ordered it from the library.