Enlightenment, Sarah Perry's latest novel, is a sweeping tale of friendship, faith, and unrequited love that spans two decades. Set in the small town of Aldleigh, the story follows Thomas Hart, an astronomer with a deep obsession for a vanished 19th-century figure, and Grace Macaulay, a restless woman seeking escape from her Baptist roots. Though separated by age and circumstance, their bond is tested as they grapple with love, science, and the mysteries of the universe.

Perry's writing shines with her blend of gothic atmosphere and rich, thematic exploration. The novel is complex and ambitious; I see why it was longlisted for the Booker Prize. I have not read Perry’s earlier works, but I certainly will to experience more of her fantastic work!

I actually didn't hold out much hope for this, as the only other Perry I'd read, her modern take on Melmoth, I'd found rather dismal - and many others had seemed defeated by its faults. There's no denying that there are longueurs aplenty, and sections that are either woefully overwritten or occasionally underwritten (several times I had to backtrack to understand plot points I'd missed).

I'm also not certain the central conceit - of writing a Gothic novel set in contemporary times - ever QUITE works - things just clunkily seem anachronistic and out of place/time; protagonist Thomas Hart in particular seems like a man of 1880, NOT 1997-2017 - but that is perhaps the point. And the ghostly figures also don't 'work' for me either.

And yet - and yet ... for most of the book I was engaged and involved in figuring out the central mysteries, and even the abundance of science and faith, two subjects that I hold little interest in, did not deter me too much. But there is also no denying that of the 9 Booker contenders I have read thus far - this has the most effective AND affecting conclusion. So it goes in the middle of the pack in my Booker rankings - I don't really see it making the shortlist OR winning - but I wouldn't be particularly upset at the former. (Update - and it DIDN'T make the shortlist!)

This would normally not be a book for me. It’s not SUPER plot heavy, I’m not really into astronomy.

But Perry’s writing and her characters really won me over and there’s really no higher compliment then saying despite what I typically look for I loved this.

We follow Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay over three decades as they traverse science and religion, what it means to be ‘good’ and unrequited love in multiple forms. What Perry does with Graces character in particular I thought was incredibly well done.

The Essex Serpent remains my favorite of Perry's titles, but I think this one pops in a close second, and it's one that I'm looking forward to sitting down and rereading again in the near future. As with many of Sarah Perry's titles the mysterious pushes up against the mundane, and the way that societal expectations for people impact - for better, or often worse - their lives are all themes that can be found in Enlightenment.

This book left me thinking, and even when I wanted to shake the main characters, I genuinely was rooting for them as well. When I went into pre-order a copy I one hundred percent talked it up to the clerk at our local indie, so obviously I do recommend!

Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment is quite a reading experience for a reader such as me, one who glories in language and all it can express, as well as the creation of a character, one Thomas Hart, who appears to largely live in order to learn about this amazing universe we live in and write about it in weekly installments in the Essex Chronicle. He is not a scientist; at the outset of this novel he is a middle aged man concerned about his place in the world and his church, the possibility of finding love, the status of the teenage girl he has “adopted” unofficially as a cause, and the monitoring of everything in the heavens, especially comets. Oh, and there may be the spirit of a woman from a century ago living in Thomas’s home but only time will tell.

Life is not simple for Thomas and following his life and the history and science he traces is not always easy for the reader. But I found the payout so worthwhile. Again and again, life is affirmed in many ways. And the often gorgeous phrasing adds to the beauty of the sentiment. Some may find the sections on Hart’s thoughts on science or religion a bit heavy going but I found that they fit with the overall story of a man struggling, obsessed with working out these details of his life and the life of the mysterious Maria of 1889. They are not full of doctrine but full of thought.

This is my first experience reading Sarah Perry and it will not be my last. While I know this book might not be for everyone, I hope that readers of literary and historical fiction will give it a look, knowing that there is a definite presence of magical realism too. Highly recommended.

Rating 4 to 4.5*

Thank you to Mariner Books, NetGalley and the author for the eARC of this book.

Somewhat meandering in story, Enlightenment is classic Sarah Perry. Similar to Melmoth and The Essex Serpent, Enlightenment is an atmospheric and engrossing read. Ambitious in the ways of Diane Setterfield or Eleanor Catton, with the dark academia vibes of A.S. Byatt, Enlightenment encompasses twenty years of Thomas and Graces' lives, intermixed with a historical mystery that propels the two.

Totally immersive read that I did not want to leave. A book that shows us we can still love without forgiving.

I really, really wanted to love this but I just didn’t. Perry’s Essex Serpent was brilliant, and I was hoping for something in that vein. Unfortunately, this was closer to Melmoth, though it was more coherent. It just didn’t have the balance of impressionism and narrative structure that the novel needed to make any real impact.

This book was luminous. Sarah Perry’s writing is, forgive me, truly out of this world. Her ability to evoke such emotional scenes with beautiful language is so unique. The storytelling in this novel was superb. It is genre bending, historical fiction meets literary fiction meets poetry meets a gothic, ghost story. I really loved the pacing of the novel, the exploration of faith and science, and the elements of friendship. I also appreciated the focus that this novel demanded. It was not a “light read” and I think that’s a testament to the depth of the story and writing.

Literary fiction with threads of romance, astronomy, friendship, and time. This is definitely ambitious literary fiction, read if you enjoyed Eleanor Cattons The Illuminaries or are looking for lit fic with tones of Bronte.

Sarah Perry writes beautifully, but ultimately that couldn’t t rescue this book from structural issues and a droning plot.

I actually liked the premise for the story here, but the execution doesn’t ever make it to where it needs to for the book to feel immersive and enticing.

I think I would have preferred more of the astronomy the blurb leads you to believe you’ll get in this story. It’s much more of a character study, but the characters are hard to like beyond a passing sense of inoffensiveness, and their interactions feel stilted and repetitive.

It’s almost shocking how little either the story or the characters evolve despite the narrative stretching over a fairly lengthy period of time.

I’ve certainly enjoyed plenty of books based purely on their beautiful writing, but it wasn’t enough to save this one.

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry drew me in with beautiful cover art and kept me intrigued with a rich story of friendship, religious beliefs, and symbolism. Though the story started a bit slow for me, I will say when it started to pick up, it was very hard to put down. This was my first foray into reading Sarah Perry but I had heard some of her books had a gothic air, which I am a fan. Though this book did not have the same gothic atmosphere, the author dabbled in astronomy and the stars which I also find fascinating,
I am not sure I fully understood all implications of the story, Thomas Hart, one of the main characters is the most dynamic and leads a very Jekyll and Hyde sort of life as he seems to go from a devote believer in god to a sort of "strange creature" as another review phrased it.
There are moments of beautiful writing and there are moments where I was confused about what was going on. I do think I was drawn in enough to want to read other works of Perry's and to explore some of her more gothic writings.
I want to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me and advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review..

3.5 rounded up

Reading Sarah Perry always feels like a dream to me, one of those very real but frustrating ones where the scenes are vivid, you can feel and smell and hear everything, but you're chasing down some profound meaning that seems just out of reach. The frustration is part of what made me keep reading this one -- in her other books, Essex Serpent and Melmoth, the endings made me glad to have wandered through the story, spending time with the ghosts that haunt Perry's writing. This one -- less so. There's some lovely thoughts and writing here. But it's a meandering, heavy-handed story.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

Sarah Perry writes about yearning better than anyone. As was the case in The Essex Serpent, the characters in Enlightenment are painfully real and beautifully drawn. Thomas Hart, in particular, is one of the best protagonists I’ve read in ages.

Enlightenment is about faith, friendship, unrequited love, homophobia, and somehow also outer space. When I first heard the premise I wasn’t sure how these themes would fit together into a cohesive story but when you’re reading it it’s made to feel seamless. These characters and their various crises (internal and external) are woven together and complement each other beautifully thanks to Perry’s truly great writing. She has an old-fashioned style that really takes its time and it gives the story a grand, almost nineteenth century feel,

I’ll need to read it again sometime soon to know for sure, but I think this is my favorite novel by Perry yet.

Having children sent me back to church. Briefly. I was a lapsed something or other in my twenties (lapsed what? Evangelical? Protestant? Fundamentalist? Adults in my life declined to offer concrete language growing up and so my own adult language remains equally as shifty). My twins rocking inside my belly, I swiped through my internet browser at night, skimming nearby church ‘about’ pages, and clicking through YouTube sermons to get a sense of my choices. Imagining my babies there.

I ruled out the Catholic options (sorry to my husband), the super tiny ones unlikely to have a lot of children, and the kind whose names were too evocative of the end times. I was looking for something specific, but I wasn’t sure if it existed. I wanted to find a church that held all the positive memories from my childhood, but none of the negative. This is to say, a place that believed strongly in community, and also in things like asking questions, gender equity, and marriage equality (my childhood churches did not). I also wanted them to base their teachings firmly in the Biblical. No cults of personality for me, please. (There’s that blasted fundamentalism! Deeply rooted, isn’t it?)

I wasn't sure, as I scoffed at sermons delivered by grumbling men and websites using intentionally obscure language to explain intolerance, that I even believed in any of this stuff anymore, but I did know two things: I wanted my children (and my family) to have a sense of community outside the workplace, and I also wanted my kids to grow up with an understanding of a major world religion. And, maybe, at least one possible explanation for why we were all here, why they were born in the first place. I didn’t know if I believed the one modern Christianity was proffering, but it’s what I’d had growing up, and although it was the source of as much pain as it was comfort, it seemed a good place to start. If there are no atheists in foxholes, pregnancy was very much a foxhole.

I grew up with a flavor of (let’s just call it) Protestantism that taught once a person was saved (bought in, joined up, whatever you want to call it), they were saved forever. There was no opting out. Parables of wayward sheep and prodigal sons were drilled into my prepubescent brain during Sunday school. These sheep and sons were lost, they ran away, and they were dutifully returned. If I left, they said, the gravitational pull of God’s love would reel me back eventually. As long as I’d offered my soul to God and acknowledged I was a sinner, even if I did that when I was only eight years old, I’d be okay in the end. It’s a haunting origin story, and in the context of this review, I mean that literally.

The characters in Sarah Perry’s ENLIGHTENMENT, which is out in the U.S. tomorrow, June 4, are entrenched in these binds. They belong to Bethesda Chapel, a strict Calvinist group in Essex. The story is led by Thomas Hart, a local newspaper columnist who grew up in Bethesda and attends its services faithfully through much of the novel. Readers learn quickly that Thomas has compartmentalized his life into two buckets: there’s the Thomas who leaves town and is openly gay, and then there is Thomas the lonely local (closeted) writer who attends church services and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the minister’s daughter, Grace Macaulay, 33 years younger than him and charmingly abrasive.

It would be easy to make the drama revolve purely around Thomas’s sexuality, but that would be thin and boring. Instead, Perry introduces her characters to a quandary nearly as formidable as their god: the stars.

The inciting incident here is a quiet conversation in the novel’s early pages: might Thomas try writing about astronomy in his column, branching out from local ghosts and literature, his editor asks? Begrudgingly, Thomas agrees to consider the moon and then a comet, unknowingly inserting himself into a century-old mystery about a local astronomer named Maria Văduva and her unsolved disappearance. As Thomas unpacks what scant information there is about Maria, the great home she once lived in, and the comet she may have discovered, he falls irrevocably in love with the man who cannot love him back. It is this unrequited love that undergirds the central tension in the novel — for both Thomas and for Grace Macaulay, both of whom we see age and grapple with a question Maria gives voice to from the grave: “Do you think the act of loving secures love’s return?”

Even as Thomas and Grace step away from their religiosity, they think in terms of eternal love, weighted love, love that comes with a price. It’s as baked into their bones as the stardust Thomas obsesses over.

Throughout reading, I could not tell how Perry was going to resolve this knot of love, salvation, and lost faith. Or, more accurately, faith that was misplaced but which one senses still exists, just not by a name one recognizes. The stunning coincidence of existence becomes the path toward disentanglement, or as the novel suggests, enlightenment.

Our stint as churchgoers is also paused, and like Thomas and Grace, my feelings about it all vary from morning to night. The hellfire calls — looms in the periphery — but as it does for Thomas, so does the goodness, the astonishment, the heavens.

This is a very atmospheric read about a circle of small town misfits who collaborate to uncover the fate of a local amateur astronomer, while also getting themselves painfully tangled interpersonally.
The mystery is an interesting storyline that slowly reveals itself as characters turn up new evidence or fit pieces together. The interpersonals are sympathetically complex in part because social acceptance generally plays such a role in their small town lives. In the end, they have aged 20 years but it’s not clear that they’ve matured commensurately.
Plot aside, they writing is a little overwrought; the language felt at times like a barrier to connecting with the characters. Ultimately I did get invested in the outcome but it’s a bit of a relief to be done.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc!

Thank you to the author, to Net Galley and to the publisher for the opportunity for review. I have read the author in the past and enjoy her excellent writing. This was a book that will take you deeply into the characters and the time in which they live. It is well crafted to each of the three stories within the pages. I did enjoy that the book transported me to the stories and that the writing is well crafted and wonderfully drawn to the story and characters. Told in differing timelines it is a fascinating tale that each reader will enjoy. Well done to the author.

This book was really quite bad. I gave it 1.5 stars rounded up to 2 in goodreads.

My biggest problems with this were as follows: 1. It is set in modern day but the writing style is SO over the top formal that it feels like it should take place in the 1800s. This made it hard for me to keep context appropriate. 2. I do not visualize anything in my brain when I read- I can’t get a picture. This book was so descriptive that it was painful for me. 3. The characters are horrible and not relatable. 4. Literally nothing happens.

I am in two minds about this book, it is beautifully written there is no doubt about that, but I struggles with the story. It is told in three timelines 1997, 2008, 2018. The main character is Thomas Hart, he is a newspaper columnist from a town in Essex. As the story begins I felt Thomas seemed old before his time, his dress is old fashioned although very smart. He worships at Bethesda chapel in town, the community is made up of people with strict beliefs in the bible, and they are trying to live away from everything in the modern world. I kept thinking the time had gone backwards, as in before 1997 a long time before that.

The newspaper editor asks Thomas to write an article on Astronomy, Thomas meets James Bower who runs the local museum. They become drawn into the mystery of nineteenth century Romanian astronomer Maria Veduva who had vanished, known as the Lowland Ghost. Whilst looking into Maria Veduva’s history Thomas is drawn to James, but he realises that James doesn’t see him in the same way. Thomas is a closet gay. He lives a strict life at home but goes into London to meet

Thomas knows Grace Macauley from the Bethesda chapel where they both worship, when Grace is first introduced she is a teenager she is old fashioned and direct, slightly eccentric. Grace is the daughter of the community’s preacher, her mother had died whilst giving birth to her. Thomas watches over Grace, like a godfather, he loves her, but not in a sexual way more as a fatherly figure, he wants her to see both sides of the world not just Bethesda where it is not just protective but also has very strict boundaries.Thomas wants to make sure she could survive in the world outside of Bethesda. The passing timelines show Thomas growing old and Grace growing up. Grace meets Nathan whilst in the sixth form, he has no connection to Bethesda, and lives in what is like another world the wilder side, without the constraints that Grace has. But can such a relationship work? With different types of love and faith. One single moment throws all of them apart.

Ok, what I found difficult is that at times it was like reading a historical novel, but I think it’s partly to do with Thomas’ pieces he writes for the newspaper. Throughout, the story is about different types of beliefs, whether that be religious, astronomy or love. Or unrequited love. The consequences of one small thing that can have a huge impact on life. How love can be lost and found over and over, but different types of love.

I found it very difficult to actually connect with any of the characters, it’s not that they weren’t believable, I just couldn’t connect. I am a reader who likes a character driven story, one where I am rooting for the character and in this I sadly didn’t find that. It took me a while to actually get into the story, I think this is a book that needs your full attention, concentration to take it in.

I did like the relationship between Thomas and Grace. I am sure that others will absolutely love this. I just don’t think it was one for me.

A beautiful gothic story that comes close to getting lost in abstraction but pulls through due to Perry's magnificent command of the language and her ability to wring pathos out of the smallest moments. Could have done without the ghost; the whole book is haunted.