"An absorbing and affecting narrative of emotional turmoil and astronomical discovery...Ms. Perry’s characters—and this circumscribed place—are so convincingly and subtly drawn that no plot twist seems outlandish and no sentiment hackneyed." — Wall Street Journal
"Enchanting...Perry magnificently evokes the wonder of the cosmos." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Perry seamlessly blends an absorbing mystery with her principal characters’ personal conflicts to create a narrative as propulsive as it is emotionally resonant." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Stunning...Perry’s shimmering prose draws readers gradually into the story, until suddenly, we are captivated by the rich, psychologically complex, and intimate characters as they grapple philosophically with issues of faith, religion, science, astronomy, and love in all its guises. Most impressive are Perry's command of language and the extensive knowledge of astronomy and physics that she nimbly incorporates into the narrative. With brilliant storytelling, Perry’s novel of dichotomies portrays how elliptical our lives are—very much like the movement of the stars." — Booklist (starred review)
"Many of Perry’s sentences are startlingly beautiful, creating an atmospheric sense of setting and character....There’s a hint of the literary romance and mystery of A.S. Byatt’s Possession." — BookPage (starred review)
"A fat, satisfying, grown-up novel – rich in plot, characters, ideas, structure, and atmosphere. Most writers only really deliver on a few of those; in this book about astronomy, faith, and devotional love in all its forms, Perry leaves none behind." — Independent (UK)
"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." — Guardian (UK)
"A rich, surprising book that dazzles and dizzies the reader...recalls...the erudition of AS Byatt, the ungovernable romances of Iris Murdoch." — Financial Times
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 (UK)
"No novel is ever perfect, but this one comes close. Read it, then read it again. This is a book full of unexpected wonders." — Literary Review
“A novel to relish: a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author.” — Sarah Waters on The Essex Serpent
“A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” — New York Times on The Essex Serpent
“Richly enjoyable...Ms. Perry writes beautifully and sometimes agreeably sharply...The Essex Serpent is a wonderfully satisfying novel. Ford Madox Ford thought the glory of the novel was its ability to make the reader think and feel at the same time. This one does just that.” — Wall Street Journal
“The most delightful heroine since Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice…Perry creates that delicate illusion of the best historical fiction: an authentic sense of the past—its manners, ideals and speech—that feels simultaneously distant and relevant to us…By the end, The Essex Serpent identifies a mystery far greater than some creature ‘from the illuminated margins of a manuscript’: friendship.” — Washington Post
Alex Jennings provides a sensitive narration of Perry's multilayered novel, a meditation on loneliness and the fragility of human connections, as seen through the motif of a comet's recurring orbits. With a thoughtful air, Jennings tells the interconnected stories of columnist Thomas Hart, a closeted gay man who lives in the village of Aldleigh; Maria Vaduva, a nineteenth-century astronomer who is rumored to haunt a local manor; and Thomas's godchild, Grace Macaulay, a prickly girl who seeks intimacy with a classmate. Perry's intricate prose and Jennings's measured, somewhat formal tone work in tandem, blurring the boundaries between the past and the present and underlining the cyclical nature of human interactions. While the densely packed narrative requires careful listening, patient listeners will find much to ponder. S.A.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
