Enlightenment is an exceptional novel. It is both a great story and a meditation on discovery both universal and personal. It is an extremely layered novel eloquently written and incredibly perceptive. The protagonists Thomas and Grace have a story that intersects for twenty years. They belong to a religious sect possibly Baptist which meets in Bethesda Hall. But really neither belong. This presents dilemmas and tensions within the narrative and as it progresses. Thomas writes a column for The Essex Chronicle, mostly on the subject of the planets and has published at least one book. Grace, an orphan, is raised by the pastor and his sister. She both wishes to be freed from the constrictions of a strait-laced religion and to belong to it. These characters, decades apart in age, face unrequited love of differing natures and both become torn apart by loss. As the story opens, Thomas is a man of fifty. Grace, for whom he cares as would a father, is approaching her eighteenth birthday. Thomas loves a married man. Grace becomes passionate for a boy like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan who hails from a very different background, though ultimately he is the more conservative of the two in many ways. But it is astronomy that is where this book’s heart lies and with Thomas’s passion for the discipline the novel explores the nature of science (especially quantum physics) and the juxtaposition of scientific explanations and faith. And comets. Haunting the story we have the ghost of an earlier female scientist the Lowlands Ghost who sits by Thomas’s shoulder like a guardian once he discovers the story from one, James Bower. Everything within this brilliant novel becomes entwined and a story with themes of loss, reconciliation, discovery, perseverance, freedom, the nature of existence and individuality as well as love evolves through fantastic beautifully constructed scenes framed by an atmospheric Essex setting. This is a beautifully written, sincere, novel which will win prizes. It also has a perfect ending. Highly recommended. I absolutely think it is my book of the year 2024.

I don’t know if there are words to describe my response to ‘Enlightenment’. I finished it weeks ago and I fear I’m as speechless about it now as I was then – how am I to do it justice in a review? Just reflecting upon it, I feel again the same kind of gulp in my throat as I felt when I reached the last chapters. A novel hasn’t done that to me since Sarah Winman’s ‘Still Life’ (I only need to see the cover of that novel to feel my heart turn to mush!).

You could say that I’m as staggered by this book as the main character, amateur astronomer Thomas Hart, is staggered by the moon and stars and comets. Sarah Perry brings beauty to what’s often principally bare methodological description of scientific fact, but she manages to draw the lyrical from the technical:
‘Comet 1899 III du Lac, not truthfully named, is five months from perihelion. It is crossing the orbit of Jupiter. Obedient to Kepler’s stern and perfect laws, the semi-major axis of its orbit sweeps out equal areas in equal time, which is to say: it’s only going to get faster. It is excited. Already its hard cold carapace is thrilling to the sun, and sublimating into gas; it has acquired a little atmosphere, and particles of dust are drawn out from the comet’s faint gravitational field.’

I vividly remember encountering Perry for the first time, reading the opening pages of ‘The Essex Serpent’ on a late plane from London to Belfast, and marvelling, thinking this is more poetry than prose:

‘It was not quite noon. High in the earth’s atmosphere the light refracted through ice crystals in obedience to certain laws, and described a perfect geometric circle round the sun, solid and unbroken as a city wall. ‘Do you see that?’ said Thomas, dismissing Grace, and the echo of her name in the vestibules of his heart.’

‘Enlightenment’ spoke to my feelings and into my life in many ways: stargazing is one of my own interests and I share a (surprising!) number of other qualities and life experiences with the protagonist Thomas ('his interest in the moon decreased his capacity to suffer'). I do think Sarah Perry’s words can speak for themselves, so I hope I’ll be forgiven for citing masses from the text; in my notes, I’ve highlighted great yawning paragraphs because the writing is so blazingly good.

And speaking of great yawning paragraphs, there’s something of Philip Roth in this latest novel of Perry’s, her style inclining towards protraction:

‘Let’s say the jays in Potter’s Field, now in their seventh generation, were shaken from the branches of the hazel by a thud; let’s say the rats in Lowlands Park paused briefly in their scavenging, and shrugged, and went on with vital business, as did the men in yellow jackets tending to the potholes on Station Road. Let’s say Grace Macaulay, coming out of the pound shop into white perpendicular light, heard the bloodless mechanical wail that followed the thud, and thought perhaps a train had hit the buffers, or struck a deer wandered in from Lowlands Park. But she had no time to spare on imagined disasters, and went briskly over the road to the Jackdaw and Crow where a woman watering hanging-baskets agreed with Grace that certainly it was much hotter than she would have liked, and that yes: she’d certainly heard that bang, but this was Aldleigh, and did anything ever happen here? No, said Grace, no, it never did; she walked under dripping baskets and delighted in the water, then went up an iron staircase fastened to the pub’s external wall in case of fire. As she went up the world went down, and dwindled to something inconsequential at her feet: she had no stake whatever in the thud, the potholes in the street, the customers converging on the threshold of the pound shop. She covered her ears against sirens coming now down Station Road, and was home.’

While we’re speaking of comparisons, ‘Enlightenment’ certainly has the depth and poignancy of ‘Still Life’, and Thomas’s obsessive hunt for details of the life of the Lowlands Ghost, Maria, is reminiscent of Scottie’s investigation into Carlotta Valdes in Hitchcock’s film, ‘Vertigo’. The writing is sensitive and fine, reminding me of Diane Setterfield's ‘Once upon a River’.

Overall, the novel is observational in quality, somewhat journalistic in style; in places rapid and clippy. Perry demonstrates her unparalleled handle on timing in an early scene when Nathan smashes the town chapel window with a golf ball, introducing his character to the dual protagonists who are inside at service. The pacing is purely cinematographic.

Never slack nor overstuffed, Perry’s writing in this novel, described as ‘her finest’, demonstrates poise and agility, making ‘Enlightenment’ an effortless read. Just like in Perry’s other novels, as a reader you can feel all the humming strings that tie the characters to one other, like in Nathan’s introduction scene. Nathan’s connection to Grace Macaulay, one of our dual protagonists, governs the narrative:

‘“I’m going,” [Nathan] said, “I want to look – come on, Grace, don’t you want to see if the tide’s out? Don’t you want to hear the bell?” He held out his hand. Grace looked at it, and her own hand listed in response. Then she remembered her anger at the power he exerted over her happiness, and how unconsciously he exerted it; so she put her hands in her pockets, and shrugged, and delighted to see him flinch against this small refusal. “All right,” she said.’
In fact, the foundation of the novel comprises the way Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay relate to each other and to other individuals - principally, James Bower and Nathan, and also a Romanian vagrant whom they befriend, as well as the ‘ghost’ of a nineteenth-century astronomer, Maria (along with other minor characters who attend the Baptist chapel). Significantly, the four figures with whom Thomas and Grace’s connection to each other intersects, are mostly remote or absent. Even Grace and Thomas are estranged for part of the text:
‘Grace Macaulay – in whose veins ran Essex rivers and Bible ink; in whose philosophy the devils of hell and the saints of Bethesda did battle with her reason and her nature – sat with her phone on the bare floor of a Hackney room and thought of Thomas Hart.’

So, ‘Enlightenment’ is very much a novel about separation and solitude, and how a person reaches out into, and is reached by, the world outside their existence; how they affect and are affected by others at a remove. The poignance of this cannot help but act upon the reader. Grace and Nathan’s texts in the final part of the book are utterly shattering, and I could hardly bear to read Thomas's unrequited missives to James, they hurt my heart so much.

Thus, correspondence is the central theme of the novel, including – I suppose – communication with oneself, in the form of diaries. Even the resolution of the plot is brought about by the discovery of a letter. At times, these correspondences read like villanelles - repetitive, playing with refrains, patterning the work. Although not an epistolary novel, ‘Enlightenment’ is threaded with letters, emails, texts, and with Thomas’s second-person address confessional newspaper articles:

‘Imagine you wake from uneasy dreams to find light beaming from the soles of your feet and the palms of your hands. If you woke in a temper, I suppose the light might be red, and if you slept well, perhaps a peaceable green. Now I hear all my readers say: What strange notions you have, Thomas Hart! But bear with me: this isn’t quite as absurd as it sounds. In fact, all your life you’ve been radiating electromagnetic waves, but since you never radiate the part of the spectrum that can be seen, we can tell nothing about you just by looking.’

Characterisation of Grace and Thomas is paramount in the novel. I was obliterated by the character of Thomas Hart immediately. Within the 3% mark - before Thomas has even reached home from his office - I was fully immersed. And how delicately Sarah Perry constructs character! Not with just dialogue and inner monologue, but through reflections often miniscule, observations seemingly inert, Thomas’s or Grace’s self-introspection:

‘How abject this was! Did women really assemble themselves out of the parts they thought most likely to be wanted? Was that love’s requirement? If so, she’d have none of it.’
‘When she answered, she said either it was because her father said so, or because God did; and as she answered, it struck her that she was often unable to tell the difference.’

The only character I’m afraid is not expertly done in ‘Enlightenment’ is that of Cora Seaborne, who reappears from ‘The Essex Serpent’. She plays a not inconsiderable part in the plot; she’s more than a cameo, and I’m just not sure how I feel about the resurrection of Perry’s main character from her best-known novel here, eight years later, especially given her revival by the stunning Claire Daines in the 2022 Apple TV adaptation of ‘The Essex Serpent’. Her comeback also seems somewhat of a jarring deus ex machina; there’s something just too convenient about her reappearance. I worry that Cora is too giant a figure to be included. In the final few chapters, when our focus should be upon the resolution of the plot, introducing Cora Seaborne alongside this runs the risk of her mighty persona eclipsing (apologies for the astronomical pun!) the gentle yet heart-rending climax of all our characters’ relativities.

Interrelatedness and correspondence: these are our concerns in ‘Enlightenment’. They are majestically drawn out in the central conceit of the bonds between heavenly objects – the pull of gravity creating orbits and the interconnectedness between moons and planets and, especially, comets – parallelling the contacts and influences of Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay. The prime substance of Perry’s novel is the action of a protagonist (Thomas or Grace/the sun) upon remote bodies (James Bower, for instance/in our Solar System, the ice, gasses, dust and rocks that are comets, planets, moons and stars). Even the reader is included in Perry’s assembly of connections: we are often addressed directly within the narrative. We too are factored within the correlations:

‘The judicious reader might well think neither prosecution nor defence have brought sufficient evidence before the court, Well, then. Grace Macaulay on the charge of happiness: case dismissed.’

Seen this way, everything is interconnected. Look at the reach of the sphere of dependences in this one delicate episode (Perry has always been a fine craftswoman of the death scene):

‘Darkness came in from the periphery until the blanket was the whole of her view – and how marvellous it is, she thought, how remarkable, and it has simply been there on my lap all this time! Look how deep the blue is in the folds, look how the sun strikes it and makes the fibres burn – she lifted it to her cheek, and there’d never, not in all her life, been a sensation like it. She breathed it in, and there was a scent of lavender and laundry powder and her own body wasting in the ugly bed; then beyond this, like a field seen through a gate, the smell of the lanolin that oiled the sheep’s wool and the sweat of the farmer that sheared it – then last of all, a base not of wet iron, the blood of the ewe that nursed the lamb in the hours it could hardly stand.’

Again, mark how the sun (celestial protagonist, mirroring Thomas or Grace in our conceit) is fundamental in recording inciting incidents, complications, or dilemmas. The sun’s agency is never discounted, and at pivotal points, its action is conspicuous (even in all the quotations already referenced), as it is in the scene where Grace and Nathan’s union is severed at the moment of her baptism:
‘Then the roving sunlight struck the discs of yellow glass fixed in the windows by the pulpit, and refracting down at the ordained degree lit the surface of the water in the baptistry. Grace Macaulay, turning with unmet hope towards the closing door, entered the shining pool not with the look of falling but of something headed for the sun, and the body of the sinner was lost to unmerited light.’

What accessible language for such an elevated trope - it gives me shivers! And, as the plot moves towards its close, as Thomas ages, as characters die, and as the novel’s motion slows down, Perry’s descriptions - according to pathetic fallacy - are similarly seasoned and subdued:
‘Mutely the chapel looked back at him across a car park glossed by rain. Its door was closed, and newly painted green; beside the door a green bay tree flourished like the wicked in the thirty-seventh psalm. An east wind blowing up the Alder moved the cold illuminated air, and the bay tree danced in its small black bed. The chapel did not dance. Its bricks were pale, its proportions austere: it was a sealed container for God. No passer-by would ever take it for a place of worship, and Aldleigh’s children believed it to be a crematorium where old men were converted into ashes and smoke. No sacred carvings flanked the door, and no bells rang; its pitched slate roof shone blue when wet. Its seven tapered windows had the look of eyes half-closed against the sun, and on brighter days, light picked out a single disc of coloured glass set into each window’s apex.’

It has been a rare pleasure to review ‘Enlightenment’ for Random House UK, Vintage. I found Sarah Perry’s latest novel to be tenderly truthful, in places astonishing, cumulatively heartbreaking.

Many people will love this book but unfortunately I didn't. I found the characters and their interactions a little too hard to believe in. The meditations on unrequited love and astronomy across the centuries were interesting, and there was a fascinating crossover with characters from The Essex Serpent. Personally, I would have liked more of this continuation from the earlier novel, as well as more generally to have just a bit more going on in the story! Sure it will do well though, and best of luck to all involved.

What a wonderful, compelling and captivating novel. Sarah Perry has absolutely come into her own and created soething very wonderful.

I loved the turmoil, the ghosts, the concidences and the humanity of the book. The way she juggles her characters and brings them in and out of focus. Sketching them in, then depening our understanding of them.

I did not regret one page of this novel and took away a fair amount of knowledge about stronomy and comets.

A wonderful book and sure to be a major smash.

I'm a fan of Sarah Perry's work, in fact., "The Essex Serpent" was one of my favourite books when it was published (and continues to be). I wasn't sure how I would like "Enlightenment" as there were some modern parts, and Sarah Perry does historical fiction REALLY WELL. I needn't have worried as this book was EXCELLENT. She is the only person (apart from possibly Syd Moore) who is able to make Essex appealing and make you want to visit. Once again I was caught up in the atmosphere, this time in the world of astronomy and comets. The mystery of Maria Vaduva's disappearance was brought to life with the ethereal descriptions. Even better was when Cora Seaborne from "The Essex Serpent" got a mentioned and was brought into the plot. This is definitely not a sequel to "The Essex Serpent" but "Enlightenment" is an equal and sits brilliantly alongside it.

This is a beautiful novel filled with quirky, lovable characters, and an interesting mystery at its heart. It is full of various unrequited loves - at the start of the novel, Thomas Hart is a fifty-eight year old man who has no interest in astronomy and has compartmentalised his life in order that his homosexuality does not interfere with his religion and home life. He’s also a sort of second father figure to Grace, a teenager who has grown up in a strict religious environment without a mother and is oddly adrift from the modern life around her, as is Thomas - beautifully so, for they are characters who are strongly themselves rather than being influenced by the zeitgeist. Thomas is sent out by his editor to look at the moon and write a story about it - and falls suddenly and absolutely in love with astronomy, and also with a man he meets at around the same time. Both Thomas and Grace become bound up in solving a local mystery - a female astronomer who was local to the area in the late nineteenth century disappeared and is now said to haunt the grounds of Aldleigh’s manor.

I loved the circuitous nature of the orbiting stars and comets and how it relates to circular patterns in the character’s lives - and I loved the way Thomas chose to be haunted by Maria in the way of lonely or grieving people rather than this being a more conventional ‘ghost’. The ending was really nicely done and I felt concluded the book perfectly with regards to its musings on various types of love and achievements. I really loved that Thomas found solace and fulfilment in his passions, this for me is something that not enough people have. I wasn’t personally a huge fan of The Essex Serpent, but I enjoyed this one much more - for me this is a more accomplished novel with more to say.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Vintage, for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a hard book to review. I took a while to place what era it was set in. To begin with I genuinely thought it was 15-1600s.
Some beautiful writing, a real conflict between religion and science.
I have seen someone else review it as an effort-ful read and I totally get that. At times I persevered with it and at times I couldn’t put it down.
Worth persevering with.

I requested this title on NetGalley because of how much I enjoyed Sarah's previous title, The Essex Serpent, and it didn't disappoint! This was a quietly beautiful novel; I enjoyed the exploration of the relationship between science and faith, and how both play a part in how Grace and Thomas's lives play out and influence the decisions they make.

The landscape is a character in its own right, and this is an element I loved about The Essex Serpent, too. The small Essex town and the fields and woodland surrounding Lowlands House are alive and breathing, and this adds to the rich atmosphere of the novel. I loved the character of Thomas Hart, a quiet man almost trapped in time.

I really wanted to love this as I very much enjoyed The Essex Serpent. But I found it patchy in parts and difficult to follow, although Perry writes beautifully. It's gothic in feel, atmospheric and introspective.
Enlightenment is a novel about relationships, small town life, longings and belief. It's broken down into several parts, some of which, to me, work better than others. The structure felt disjointed and I didn't much warm to any of the characters.
My biggest gripe was suspending my disbelief that the main character made a living writing a column for his local newspaper. Even back in 1997, he'd have needed to do somewhat more than write an erudite column to be called a journalist and have his own desk. But the reader doesn't see any of that.
Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this novel.

I found this book a bit hard going to be honest. It seemed to move about a lot and I wasn't truly invested in the characters. Saying that it is very well written - maybe one I need to come back to another time. Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Having been an enormous fan of The Essex Serpent, I was really looking forward to this and it doesn't disappoint, although it doesn't quite reach the heights of its predecessor (there is a lovely Easter egg for fans of the former novel though). Beautifully written with a genuine mystery and the type of pining love that Sarah Perry writes so well, this wonderfully atmospheric novel is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. Highly recommended and many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Back in 2022, The Essex Serpent was the book that got me out of a massive reading slump where I hadn’t read anything for easily a year. I was therefore very excited to have the opportunity to read Enlightenment, but sadly what I found in the Essex Serpent, I didn’t find here.

The writing is beautiful, but I found myself not connecting with the story or the characters and that made me not want to pick it so I’m sadly DNFing this book.

I do, however, have friends & family who I know would love this & would reccomend it to them!

I’m very grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for approving my request to read this book..

Totally drawn into the wonderful rich characters in this novel set over several decades. Weaving the narrative so masterfully between science and faith and the entanglement and nuances of them both. Sarah's vocabulary as always challenged me to learn new words and marvel at the construction of some of her thoughts in the descriptions of life. In a very good way! The relationship between Thomas and Grace breaks your heart as you see the love destroyed and leads to our own reflections on life and the preciousness of it all. The shadowy 'ghost' left pearls throughout. Do read this to be utterly absorbed and lose track of time.

I love Perry's books and this is everything I've been taught to expect from her work - complex characters, interesting interactions, a touch of the uncanny and a new slant on an old piece of folklore. This was thoroughly enjoyable.

Thomas works as a columnist for a local newspaper. His editor persuades him to write some articles about astronomy, which leads him to research a mysterious woman whose ghost has haunted him since he was a child. Thomas has been friends with Grace since she was born, as they were both part of a strict religious sect. The story explores friendships, love and faith.
Enlightenment has everything expected of a Sarah Perry book, beautiful writing, complex characters and a touch of the supernatural. The Essex setting with the ever-present Essex mud, is very atmospheric. The opening of the book is set in the 90’s but to me, it had an almost Victorian feeling, particularly the sections about Thomas at home.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Enlightenment is an atmospheric, beautifully written novel. I really enjoyed it.

Thomas and Grace are worshippers at the same Baptist chapel, and despite there being thirty years between them they are kindred spririts, well they are until love enters the equation. As well as falling in love Thomas also develops an obsession with a female astronomer who lived in the Manor House during the 19th century, and is now believed to haunt it, she may also have discovered a comet and Thomas sets out to discover the truth about her and make sure she gets the credit for the discovery of the comet.

Sarah Perry is a wonderful writer. Her “Enlightenment” once again explores the familiar themes of science, faith and love. The themes are essentially those explored previously in “The Essex Serpent”, but this fresh new novel is set in contemporary times and the wonders of comets, stars and planets through astronomy. Perry’s characters and prose make for an entertaining and engaging read. Special thank you to Random House UK, Vintage and NetGalley for a no obligation advance review copy.

A very beautifully written and interesting story. I loved the way it was laid out and the characters likeable. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Comets, faith - religious and in many other ways, love, specters from the past, all are there and influence all the characters involved. The writing can be fanciful and it can be difficult to feel immersed in the storyline, difficult to relate to (some) of the characters. But the reader is challenged to learn more about astronomy, to examine what is 'good' and is it possible to choose the opposite?
It'll need a deep breath but go for it and go for "Enlightenment."