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Sarah Perry's Enlightenment is a moving story of love and astronomy

This beautifully written and compassionate novel tells the story of how comet Halle-Bopp turns a small-town writer onto astronomy and opens him up to fresh adventures

By Emily Wilson

8 May 2024

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Phil Ball/Shutterstock (356629a) HALE BOPP COMET COMET HALE BOPP

Comet Hale-Bopp was visible with the naked eye as it passed Earth in 1997

Phil Ball/Shutterstock

Enlightenment
Sarah Perry (Jonathan Cape)

SARAH PERRY is a writer most famous for The Essex Serpent, recently made into a high-end TV show on Apple TV+. Perry, being neither a sci-fi author nor a science writer, has until now given us no cause to include her on these pages. Her new novel, Enlightenment, however… the clue is in the title.

In this gorgeously written, witty and very moving novel, our hero Thomas Hart is a man…

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