Enlightenment with Sarah Perry, in conversation with Samantha Harvey
Fri 03 May 2024
7:00pm at Bath Elim Church, Charlotte St, Bath BA1 2ND
Book + Ticket gives you a free ticket with a copy of the book, all tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, author talk, Q&A and signing.
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Book+Ticket £20.00Add to basket
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Ticket £8.00Add to basket
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Student Ticket £7.00Add to basket
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
We are over the moon to announce that Sarah Perry, author of the blockbuster bestselling The Essex Serpent, will be joining us to discuss her new novel, Enlightenment.
Sarah is one of the biggest names in British fiction, with The Essex Serpent and Melmoth both proving huge hits with staff and customers alike at Mr B’s. We can’t wait to hear more about Enlightenment, a story of love and astronomy spanning two decades in a small Essex town.
We’re delighted that Sarah will now be in conversation with Samantha Harvey, author of five novels including The Western Wind and most recently Orbital.
About the book:
Thomas Hart and Grace Macauley are fellow worshippers at the Bethesda 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, and whose startling astronomical discoveries may never have been acknowledged. Inspired by Maria, and the dawning realisation James may not reciprocate his feelings, Thomas finds solace studying the night skies.
Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love? Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former who represents a different, wilder kind of life. They are drawn passionately 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 the sheer miracle of being alive.
*AN OBSERVER FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024*
‘A complete masterwork’ SARAH HALL