Sheffield is the ordinary, earthly birthplace attributed to Andrew Martin—the identity the Alien narrator has taken on. Its significance lies in the contrast between that assumed human past and the narrator’s actual origin, which is 8,653,178,431 light-years away.

The Supposed Human Origin

The narrator reflects that Isobel Martin, author of the unfinished novel, believes he was born in Sheffield, one hundred miles away. He understands that she sees him as a human called Andrew Martin, not as a being from a distant world. Sheffield therefore stands for the human biography he has inherited and the extraordinary secret concealed within it.

A Joke About Love

When the narrator says that no one where he comes from can love, Isobel takes him to mean Sheffield and lightly suggests that the city is not so bad. The misunderstanding makes the distance between them briefly comic: she hears a complaint about a familiar place, while he is trying to describe a civilization fundamentally unlike hers. Sheffield is not depicted through its landscape or history; it enters the novel through this mistaken exchange, which brings the narrator’s hidden identity into the intimacy of his conversation with Isobel.