Enlightenment, Sarah Perry
Enlightenment, Sarah Perry
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

Enlightenment
A Novel

Author: Sarah Perry

Narrator: Alex Jennings

Unabridged: 13 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/04/2024


Synopsis

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Telegraph, Washington Post, The New Yorker. LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE. “Like A.S. Byatt’s Possession, Enlightenment is a baroque, genre-bending novel of ideas, ghosts and hidden histories. A richly layered epic....a heartfelt paean to the consolations of the sublime, where religion and science meet."" -- Telegraph""Read it, then read it again. This is a book full of unexpected wonders."" -- Literary ReviewFrom the author of The Essex Serpent, a dazzling novel of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends.Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits—torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community.It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit. Thomas and Grace will ask themselves what it means to love and be loved, what is fixed and what is mutable, how much of our fate is predestined and written in the stars, and whether they can find their way back to each other.A thrillingly ambitious novel of friendship, faith, and unrequited love, rich in symmetry and symbolism, Enlightenment is a shimmering wonder of a book and Sarah Perry’s finest work to date. 

About Sarah Perry

Sarah Perry is the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent, Melmoth, and After Me Comes the Flood. She lives in England.

About Alex Jennings

Alex Jennings, a distinguished two-time Olivier Award winner, has starred in numerous Royal Shakespeare and National Theatre productions; his films include The Four Feathers, The Wings of the Dove, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jack on August 28, 2024

This reads like a Victorian novel (derogatory) in its excessive level of detail and convoluted sentence structure. Though each individual sentence is well crafted, combined together it mostly reads as tangential nonsense. There are some gorgeous lines but it’s like sifting through sand for hours in......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on January 16, 2025

At times, breathtaking. Check out my 2024 honorable mentions at Hello, Bookworm. 👈 ✨"...you know it is possible to love in such a way that you command reality, that your sight cannot be trusted!"✨ I hardly know how to describe this book: As an elegy to the stars? An ode to love's ability to conne......more

Goodreads review by fatma on July 30, 2024

sarah perry's writing is lovely, and there are some beautiful passages here, but sadly i found the actual storytelling to be severely lacking. i just never got this story. it felt disjointed and unevenly paced, missing a critical sense of flow that would've made it feel more cohesive and effective a......more