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Enlightenment
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
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Enlightenment
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Enlightenment is a story of love and astronomy, told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends.
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 commitment to religion and their desire for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of romantic love.
Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and whose identity might finally be revealed when a startling discovery is made. As Thomas fears a broken heart, he comes to find solace in astronomy: might it offer as much as earthly or even divine love? Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former. They are drawn recklessly 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 their place in it.
This ambitious novel about love and faith and science is Sarah Perry's finest work to date.
What listeners say about Enlightenment
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sassy
- 28-07-24
Devastatingly brilliant
Sarah Perry opens up the human heart with a surgeon’s skill. Under a bright, uncompromising light, she exposes its desires and devastations, its jealousies and mercies; above all, its capacity to love. She makes us sit with discomfort. She makes us think about how free we are to make decisions, and whether meaning is ultimately derived from our relationships to others. This book is moving, though it doesn’t always move you where you most want to go—and I feel that’s what makes it so special.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Gemma Bradshaw
- 30-05-24
Just too drudging
This really felt like an endurance test rather than an enjoyable read. The voice wasn’t my favourite and that combined with dense writing and forgettable characters meant I finished out of obligation rather than desire.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Christine Ranger
- 19-07-24
An absorbing, thought provoking listen
I love the way Sarah Perry writes here, marrying the love and grief of relationships with the intricacies of cosmology. I was gripped by the story, though I felt it could have been shorter and tighter without losing any of the impact.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- jackjustreading
- 24-06-24
Disappointed
I persisted to the end, hoping it would improve. I should have DNFD it about 20% in, if I’d know it was a book that went nowhere and said nothing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Caro57
- 27-08-24
Wonderful story
I loved everything about this book, the characterisation, the story, the meticulous research and Alex Jennings exquisite narration.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 03-06-24
Well Worthwhile and a Spur to Thought
This is clearly an impressive novel and Perry’s best yet, a judgement based on having read them all. ‘Enlightenment’ is involving and complex, yet ideally suited to this audio-book version. Alex Jennings is excellent in steering a clear course through the novel and ensuring that listeners and carried along with an easy ability to differentiate the characters. For me the compelling character that Sarah Perry creates is Grace; an astonishing character that lives in the memory. I am two novels further on and Grace is still in my head. Yet there is more than this. Love and unrequited love, religion supportive and constraining, loneliness, and the question of whether simply being is all that we have expect in life. Sarah Perry has great skill in language and the ability to create a clear sense of space. For someone that has not really experienced the countryside and waters of Essex, this novel is certainly a magnet. In the end this is not a novel to zip through. Rewards come from considered listening and thinking over things. It will please many readers, and is well worth selecting.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Carrie
- 22-08-24
Wonderful writing
Such a brilliant story and so beautifully told. It felt like every word was carefully selected for both meaning and poetry. Can’t recommend it highly enough
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amanda D.
- 06-06-24
The atmosphere created by the reader's voice
l loved it all..but then I love all Sarah Perry's novels.Very atmospheric and gripping in its telling.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- R. Morris
- 14-08-24
Trying a little too hard
This was a ‘literary’ effort that tried hard to emulate the erudition and tradition of novels produced by the likes of Virginia Woolf and A S Byatt. However…
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