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

Sarah Perry is one of my very favourite authors; I always look forward to her new books, and to hearing her speak at book festivals and launches.

Enlightenment is a brilliant novel. I was so caught up in the story and its interesting characters, that I could hardly put the book down. The author's writing has something of a poetic quality, and it was a very satisfying read, but I knew perfectly well that this is a book that would repay rereading, and, having read a lighter novel between times, I began this one again for a more measured read.

It almost goes without saying that I have learned a great deal about astronomy; by writing one character's newspaper articles and another's diary excerpts the author has successfully covered difficult concepts that would otherwise be hard for the novelist to explain, in what I can only describe as meta-fiction. One of the novel's main themes, for me, is the extent to which people conform to "socially acceptable" norms in their religion or who and how they love, for example, and how that affects the extent to which they feel they belong to a community or place. Even now, I am sure that there are deeper layers within the book than those I have so far reached, and I am looking forward to hearing the author's own views.

Undoubtably Sarah Perry is a talented writer but I think that this book was probably not a good choice for me. I found parts of the tale interesting but the prose was rather too heavy for me in places and I began to feel bogged down.

It took me a little while to get into this book as I wasn't at all sure I cared about the characters. Then something clicked and I think I got the intentions of the author. The prose is beautiful, the descriptions often startling, and the characters, in the end, understandable. Though I am an old cynic when it comes to believing love/physical desire can span 20 years when there has been no contact with the beloved - but maybe that's just me. Anyway, there is a different sort of love at work here - a deeper, less personal one - and that is shown in the ecstasy that reaches beyond the self.

Not an easy book, this, but a worthwhile one.

In Sarah Perry’s novel “Enlightenment”, Thomas Hart falls in love with many things: the motherless child of someone in his church, astronomy, the pursuit of the story behind the Lowlands Ghost, and James Bower a married museum curator. The latter is against the teachings of the staunch Baptist church in which he was raised and whilst he has always had one foot out of the church, he finds himself divided between his “London self” and the one that attends Bethesda.

Like Thomas Hart, this was a book that had me divided. Perry’s writing style is often difficult to get into until you’ve got accustomed to it, and this was exaggerated by the use of biblical language. However, I really did get into this book and in particular Thomas’s difficulties tallying his convictions and his paternal love for Grace. Nonetheless towards the last third I lost momentum and felt the novel had probably told me all it needed to, which is a shame. This is a clever novel, but ultimately not one that I have fallen in love with.

A lovely book which for me, was written in such a way as to allow the reader to completely impose their own interpretation. I felt that if you didn’t, it would be easy to become confused as the plot is complex. The story talks about the characters as if they are alive and then as if they’re dead and are appearing in some ghostly form. This adds to the story, giving it mystery and intrigue.
There is every emotion in this tale from all of the characters. It seemed that they were all as important as each other because they all had a story to tell of love, heartache and loss.
A most unusual book and I loved it.

A remarkable book

My first impression of this book is that the author has quite an old-fashioned writing style. It reads like a classic novel quite compelling, but also different from a lot of the other novels that have read recently.
I particularly liked some of the minor characters, the older lady who turns up to the birthday party in silk, and then is bitter and twisted and spoils everything
Although set in modern times, the story is somehow timeless how the story of the group of people linked loosely by their relationships with a small Baptist chapel in Essex Village. There is a historical element to the story when a 19th century astronomer has disappeared in mysterious circumstances and various characters in the story gradually put together what happened to her.
There’s a lot of a lot of use as the word adamant which I had to look up the first time and therefore it struck me each time it was repeated.

The author has a distinct timeless writing style, which I really enjoyed reading the novel is atmospheric and past and kept me enthralled throughout
In summary, this is a clever book with circular themes, mimicking the resurgence of the Comet which is described at certain times both historical and nowadays, . The story the the comet’s and it’s passage around the Sun and earth and its circularity.
I personally like this novel, far more than her previous novel, the Essex serpent, which i which I know got very good reviews at the time it was published. I think it was on the booker long list.
Enlightenment is published in the UK on the 2nd of May 2024 by random house, UK.vintage

I read an early copy on Natalie UK. This review will appear on Goodreads and my book blog bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com and after publication will also appear on Amazon, UK

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6223028474

Strange, unsettling but ultimately beautiful book. If you had told me what it was about in advance, I would never have picked it up. Similarly, a good hour or so in, I was on the verge of putting it to one side as completely impenetrable/unreadable. But it gradually crept up on me and I suddenly realised that the author had turned a fairly mundane story into something magical and thought provoking - and hypnotically readable. That's not to say it's without it's frustrations - the plot is entirely driven by people acting in ways that are daft and don't ring true, and the writing style takes some effort to get used to - but worth the investment of time nonetheless.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NeGalley for the ARC.

I thank the author, Publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy of this book in return for a fair review.
I have held my review for a while, as I worked out in my mind, why I enjoyed this book. As with her earlier books, this is set in rural Essex, and has a number of threads. The central character is wonderful, Thomas Hart, a newspaper writer, interested in the natural world and astronomy, who is inextricably linked To Grace MacCauley, thirty years younger, with a fundamentalist upbrin.ging. Around them are other characters and stories from the past. How the past is gradually unveiled is central to the plot. I loved the characters and really appreciated the reproduction of Hart's newspaper articles, telling us about the area, its past and present. I shall continue to follow this author.

A beautiful, captivating story of the universe, the earth, religion and love in all its forms. It was a slow start but it got a grip on me and I was delighted to spend time with the characters.

Undoubtedly, Sarah Perry is a brilliant writer but, for me, it was just a little too dense and heavy and I found it difficult to get through. That's my own taste rather than because the writing is at issue. It took me quite a while to feel for the characters and care about them, just as I found it difficult to find them under the long, description heavy prose.

Definitely had interesting themes and can see that others loved the novel - I can see why but just wasn't for me.

I wasn't sure about this one at first, it appeared to be slow and staid. But that was only the starting overlaying simple story.
Underneath was a more complex, more interesting , clever story which I found spellbinding.
Lots of insights were given into relationships and astronomy.
I loved it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.