Enlightenment

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 A story of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends ''Gorgeous... Ethereal'' GUARDIAN ''A book with cosmic reach'' FINANCIAL TIMES ''A romance worthy of Emily Bronte'' WALL STREET JOURNAL ''A genre-bending novel of ideas'' TELEGRAPH ''Sarah Perry just gets better and better'' INDEPENDENT Thomas and Grace are fellow worshippers at the Baptist chapel 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 for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of love. Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century female astronomer Maria Veduva, said to haunt a nearby manor. Inspired by Maria, and the dawning realisation James may not reciprocate his feelings, Thomas finds solace studying the night skies. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love? Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former who represents a different, wilder kind of life. They are drawn passionately together, but quickly pulled apart, casting Grace into the wider world and far away from Thomas. In time, the mysteries of Aldleigh are revealed, bringing Thomas and Grace back to each other and to a richer understanding of love, of the nature of the world, and the sheer miracle of being alive.

Autorentext

Sarah Perry

Klappentext

Unlikely best friends Thomas and Grace are bound together by questions of faith, love and astronomy in this dazzling summer read from the #1 bestselling author.

READERS HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH ENLIGHTENMENT:
'Vibrates with wonder'
'I absolutely loved it'
'Full of magic'
'Exquisite...strange and wonderful and unpredictable'
'This book tore my heart apart then put it back together again'

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 religion and their desire to explore the world. But their friendship is ruptured by the arrival of love.

Over the course of twenty years, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as a devastating story of passion and scientific adventure unfolds and Aldleigh's unique mysteries are revealed.

'It's glorious... A beautiful, memorable novel' OBSERVER

'Sarah Perry just gets better and better' INDEPENDENT

'Absorbing... A romance worthy of Emily Brontë' WALL STREET JOURNAL

'Gorgeous...ethereal' GUARDIAN

'Sarah Perry creates worlds to disappear into... Beautiful, vivid' BBC

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024
A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE GUARDIAN, DAILY TELEGRAPH AND DAILY MAIL**

Zusammenfassung
Gauzy and unhurried, a genteel novel of inner space. **It's luxuriously - defiantly - old-fashioned... Perry has always produced gorgeous prose, and she has found a new, ethereal register in this book** Guardian