Enlightenment

Reviews / Votes

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 * A genre-bending novel of ideas, ghosts and hidden histories... A heartfelt paean to the consolations of the sublime, where religion and science meet * Telegraph * A rich, surprising book that dazzles and dizzies the reader. It balances reason with belief, excels in both ideas and action, and, though firmly placed in Perry's homeland of Essex, it's a book with cosmic reach * Financial Times * Extraordinary and ambitious... What Perry has done in this layered, intelligent and moving book is to construct a kind of quantum novel, one that asks us to question conventional linear narratives and recognise instead what is ever-present in Perry's luminous vision of Essex: truth, beauty and love * Observer * Dazzling... Faith and science can inspire out-of-time cosmic wonder, but as Perry beautifully demonstrates here, so, too, can the novel * Daily Mail * Tender, ruminative, philosophical * Times Literary Supplement * Sarah Perry just gets better and better... A fat, satisfying, grown-up novel - rich in plot, characters, ideas, structure, and atmosphere... It hangs together as a resplendent whole, shining like a night sky * Independent * Gorgeously written... A beautiful, compassionate and memorable book, one that will repay reading more than once * New Scientist * Perry has returned with another cracker. A dazzling novel, full of big ideas about religion and science, love and friendship * i * It's glorious, doing what her books do best: intertwining a love story with reams of esoteric learning and big ideas... This is a beautiful, memorable novel * Observer, *Books to Look Out For 2024* *