Enlightenment

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 Bront¿/b> 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,