In the small town of Aldleigh sits the Bethesda Chapel, home to a non-conformist group of worshippers. Thomas and Grace are both members of the congregation but both are undone by love. Teenage Grace falls in love with one of the town boys and questions her faith. Thomas is gay and lives a secret life in London but falls heavily for a married curator whom he meets as he investigates the life of Maria Vaduca. Maria's ghost haunts both as they strive to prove her worth as an amateur astronomer.
There is always a strong theme of the supernatural in Perry's writings and here is no different but it is less overt and more of a background influence. The story is not about haunting but about discovery and regret, it is slow but beautifully written and the prose draws the reader in until they become completely invested in the lives of this small community, a wonderful read.

"Enlightenment" by Sarah Perry was one I picked up with quite a bit of curiosity thanks to the hype around "The Essex Serpent." Perry's writing is lovely and has a distinct flair to it, though the story itself occasionally had me lost. It explores some deep themes about personal connections, beliefs, and the wider universe, which can get you thinking.

Set in the quaint, imagined corridors of Aldleigh, we meet Thomas and Grace, two characters linked by a strict church and both trying to figure out their own paths. The narrative spans a good chunk of time, and I have to admit, I was hoping for more on the mysterious astronomer that the book sometimes references. But the main story really revolves around Thomas and James and their journey into her history.

Perry’s depiction of religion and science as companions rather than foes is refreshing, presenting them as shades of human experience rather than stark contrasts. "Enlightenment" is a tapestry of human emotions and beliefs, a quiet musing on life's grandeur, and the subtle, unfathomable connections that bind us to each other and the world around us

Grateful for Netgaley for the arc

Enlightenment is a delightful read set in a small town Aldleigh in Essex with the local journalist of the Essex chronicle - Thomas Hart meandering through life. He is a member of a local church – the Bethesda Baptist chapel and it is there he meets Ronald Macauley who is the sole parent to his newborn daughter Grace. As the years go by, the tale revolves around Grace’s and Thoams’s relationship and their love interests as well as with the nineteenth-century female astronomer Maria Veduva. Thomas is on a mission to learn about Maria and the events leading up to her disappearance in the 1880s. The book spans several decades with comets being centre of their universe with the mundanity of life pushing through.
The peripheral characters like Nathan and Richard are strong and become more pronounced as they appear and re-appear throughout the story. A beautifully written book with wonderfully engaging lost souls but with glimpses of love and celestial enlightenment with the true star shining in the sky.

A beautiful love story to the skies. Full of love, of stars, of comets and the mystery of the skies above us.
Thomas’s story is a fascinating one - his found love of the moon and the skies opens up a new world for him, Grace, Nathan and others in the town around him. His strange and wordy articles for the newspaper define him exactly and I could imagine him walking the streets with his neck and eyes trained on the night sky.
Grace was a wonderful character - guileless and naive she was a brilliantly open book who was so easy to love - her passion and fire maintained even through such hard times. I loved the complicated relationship she and Thomas had.
Sarah Perry’s writing is beautiful and lyrical and this story flows like the moon’s reflection on water.

I don't think Sarah Perry and I are a good match. I find the ideas and themes behind her books interesting, her characters original and her prose beautiful. But I always feel like I'm wading through mud reading her writing, grasping pieces of storyline, fascinating details, beautiful sentences, but ultimately struggling to piece it altogether and end up feeling like I am missing something. I really wanted to like this book, but just found it disjointed and confusing. It's a shame, because I enjoyed spending time with the characters, but I couldn't gel with the flow and ended up DNFing this at 36%.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

A multi layered novel that is beautifully written and tackles religion head on, the story develops its main characters over 3 periods each roughly 10 years apart and what makes them return to their religious community

What a strange beguiling novel. Sarah Perry creates a fictional world of romanticism, science (astronomy), religion, and the gothic. It's a bit destabilising at first but once you let the prose and the characters envelop you, the reading becomes that much more rich. You grow to want every little detail of Thomas, Maria and Grace's lives.

At its core, I think the novel is about how we connect/don't connect to each other. How do we connect to human beings when we have religion and religious figure watching over us? Can the natural world give us something to connect to? IS astronomy a way to see patterns in our own lives? Why do we connect to someone when he may hurt or never fulfil us (Thomas's dilemma)?

If there's a minor criticism, it's that the beginning can be a tad difficult to get past. It's a bit dense, but once you settle in, the rest of the layered narrative (found letters, unsent letters, newspaper articles, separate timelines, dual narratives, etc.) washes over you and you feel as if you're reading a modern-day Victorian style novel. I will also say that I am not an expert on astronomy or religion, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book. Perry creates a world

The Essex Serpent is one of my all time favourite books so I was delighted to read Sarah Perry's new novel. I loved the unoque characters and their friendship. I also loved all the historical factoids and astronomy. The whole book was a delight!

The premise of this book and having heard wonderful reports on this author's previous work meant I really looked forward to reading 'Enlightenment'. However, it was a mixed experience. I found the writing beautiful and reread some descriptions, but in a book of this length, it became cloying after a time. I loved the theme of astronomy, but again, I felt it was overdone in general.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

Perry’s writing has a tendency towards swooninenss, which is a your-mileage-may-vary quality. In this book I think it works rather well. It’s about two people in a Strict Baptist congregation in a small Essex town, Aldleigh: when the novel opens, in 1997, Thomas Hart is a middle-aged, closeted homosexual, and Grace Macaulay is a motherless, crosspatch eighteen-year-old. Their relationship—almost paternal-filial, almost a friendship, not quite either—is forever altered by the advent of love for both of them: in Thomas’s case, a straight, married local museum curator named James Bower, and in Grace’s, a slightly feckless non-Baptist teenager named Nathan. All four are drawn into the investigation of a mysterious woman named Maria Vaduva, who lived at local estate Lowlands Park in the 1880s. Twice skipping a decade forward in time, Enlightenment traces the fallout when people discover that the community they want to be a part of is too small to contain them. It’s very luscious writing, maybe relentlessly so, but it draws you in, and Perry is good at making you feel that the stakes are high because the characters feel that.

I really wanted to enjoy this book based on the description, but I found it extremely confusing and hard to decipher. Unfortunately this was a DNF for me.

A fascinating tale laced with astronomical references and biblical language - but at heart a moving story of love and friendship.

'Enlightenment' is a beautiful, strange, visionary novel which explores religion, science, love and loss with immense wonder and compassion. Set in the fictional Essex town of Aldleigh (based on the author's home town - and mine - of Chelmsford), the novel follows two worshippers at Bethesda Strict Baptist Chapel aged three decades apart - 50-year-old Thomas Hart and 17-year-old Grace Macaulay, who both feel torn between the chapel in which they have grown up and the outside world. Thomas, a local writer, becomes fascinated by astronomy and the night skies, and starts investigating the forgotten 19th Century astronomer Maria Văduva Bell, who is rumoured to haunt the nearby Lowlands House. Both he and Grace experience the pull of desires which are not sanctioned by their congregation and which will ultimately drive a wedge between them.

This is a difficult novel to summarise, and my above synopsis captures very little of its magic. This is partly down to the strangeness of Sarah Perry's characters - particularly Thomas and Grace, who have an otherworldly quality and seem to exist outside of time, despite the novel being set between 1997 and 2017. This means that they experience life more intensely - and yet there are also great lacunae of which nothing is said - Thomas's childhood or family, for instance, or Grace's schooling - leaving even more space for Perry to explore their fixations. These are stunningly described - for instance, as Thomas's passion for astronomy develops he describes now he now 'divide[s his] time between Essex and the moon.'

The depiction of religion might also be rather different from what many readers would expect when they hear the words 'Strict Baptist' or reference to forbidden desires or to the intersection of faith and science. Sarah Perry depicts Bethesda with great affection and kindness, and describes the unwavering faith of some of its members very movingly. Even as Thomas and Grace find themselves stepping away from it, they never fully leave it behind. This is not a novel about a binary opposition between faith and science, but rather how both can be a source of ineffable wonder.

Perry's writing is gorgeous, playful and often very moving, and the plotting is complex but deeply satisfying. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

A totally stunning and beautifully written book about love, life, friendship and loss. Thomas falls in love with Grace the moment he meets her as a motherless baby, and their friendship and its ups and downs are at the core of the book. I absolutely love the characters, the language, the landscapes and the astronomy, such a perfect package of tightly written and evocative prose. There were times in the book when I was breathless with the beauty and emotion of a single sentence or phrase, it's that good. Will be rereading and treasuring this one, it is just everything.

Enlightenment centres around the themes of love, faith, religion and relationships. There is a rather haughty ghost and some great descriptive passages. I particularly enjoyed those describing seed pearls and swishing dresses!

Friendship between the main character Thomas and Grace, a young woman whom he has watched over and known since she was a baby, is at the centre of the novel, which takes place over a 20 year period, from 1997 to 2017. Both are members of a rather strict chapel, where the congregation are somewhat set apart in beliefs, dress and habits from their contemporaries in a small town in Essex.

Thomas and Grace desire to break away and live another kind of life. Their actions with regard to each other’s personal lives have a huge impact on both and cause a schism in their friendship and propel them into different territories.

There is a lot of astronomy in Enlightenment, some of it is interesting and magical, but much I found far too detailed. Unfortunately I ended up skimming multiple paragraphs. I lamented that the scientific content is over complicated, because it is a beautifully written novel in the main, with some sympathetic characters and a very real setting, complete with an old abandoned mansion, parkland and a little old-fashioned chapel.

It seemed that many of the characters all spoke in a similar, rather formal manner. Thomas is described as appearing to be from another age. Another character seems to have adapted a similar way of conversing, when they reappear later in the book.

In the advanced copy there are no chapters or breaks, although there are several parts. I hope that in the published edition there are chapters or breaks of some kind, I do find this makes for a better reading experience.

I am unfamiliar with the author’s previous books. I will look for them as I was drawn to her style of writing and magical realism.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

I really liked the premise of this book when I read about it with its eclectic range of topics and time periods. Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me, maybe there were too many themes and I did find it a bit confusing at times and wanted to know more about one aspect of the story before rushing on to the next one. Also, while the author obviously writes well, I could have done with fewer metaphors and a more fluid style to keep me reading. I imagine may well be in the minority and hopefully many other readers will love the book
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
2.5 rounded up to 3

Sarah Perry's Enlightenment follow the lives of several characters over the course of about 20 years. The chief character is Thomas Hart, a journalist who writes a weekly column in the local paper. As the book opens, he embarks on a journey to discover more about astronomy and the life of a previous resident of the town of Aldleigh, Maria Veduva.
We also meet Grace Macauley, Thomas' god-daughter and fellow worshipper at the town chapel, Bethseda. Various other characters weave in and out of Thomas and Grace's lives, as both of them look for true love unsuccessfully.
This was a compelling read showing how people's views of the world develop and change over the course of time. As a mature (i.e. older in years) person myself, I could really appreciate the way relationships between the characters and their thoughts and ideas grow and change over the years.

A homage to life, love and its vagaries. The story is set in the 1990s at the time when the Halle Boppe comet could be seen in the night sky. The local paper is looking for interesting topics that its readers will enjoy. Its editor tries to interest reporter Thomas Harte to use an old planisphere and write about the moon or the comet. He would rather write about an old local mystery, about which someone has sent him intriguing details.

I really enjoyed the Essex Serpent by the same author but found this one confusing at times because it covers so many subjects from gay love to astronomy and religion. It's beautifully written with memorable metaphors and I loved the resident ghost, who is also an astronomer. The main theme is the perceived need to conform in a small community and how people feel when they aren't comfortable with the unwritten rules of society and the written ones of the church. A very literary book.

I was excited to read this book - I haven’t read anything by this author but hear amazing things about The Essex Serpent.

Unfortunately this book was a mixed bag for me; the writing is beautiful, I think Sarah Perry has a unique writing style and it is lovely to read.

But I found the plot quite hard to follow and just found myself getting confused repeatedly.

This book covers a number of topics - I think this just lost me as I felt some parts were done better than others and therefore was more interested in certain aspect of the book than others. The author takes on some big subjects - love, relationships, faith, religion.

The author writes a gothic atmosphere beautifully and if you like a book with gothic vibes, this could be the book for you.

I struggled with the characters, didn’t particularly like any of them and didn’t really enjoy reading them.

I don’t think it’s the case that this is a bad book - I honestly just think it is not a good fit for me. I can think of many friends who would thoroughly enjoy this book and genuinely has some of the most beautiful writing I have read in a while

In Enlightenment, Sarah Perry captures small town Essex, its rivers, streets and railways with perfection. She also creates wonderful characters — flawed, ambitious, confused — at odds with each other and yet strangely in harmony.

At the centre we have Thomas Hart, an old school regional newspaper columnist. Out of step with modern times, but his readers treasure him. Thomas’s adventures, real or imaginary, and his conflicts with his faith (and its lack of charity) take centre stage. But Grace, raised in a god-fearing family, with all the confusion that can bring, holds her own in the narrative.

And the mystery of long-dead Maria, and her astronomical observations, haunts them. She is as much a live character in this book as any other.

Enlightenment is beautifully written. Even when I was not comfortable with the tale I was drawn back to it. I enjoyed the astronomy and Thomas’s struggles with learning physics most. The strict baptist religion I did not. But atmosphere… so well created and maintained.

It is not a short book, and it divides into three sections, covering twenty years. And there are no chapters or even *** breaks. This may be solved in the final version, but made reading it hard going, with what seemed like follow-on paragraphs turning out to be from a different point of view. At times it made me want to give up, and accounts for the length of time I spent on it. But the last section is wonderful, and I couldn’t stop. The reader reaps a rich reward!

Perfect for literary mystery enthusiasts who like a little science thrown in