From the writer of The Essex Serpent comes a brand new tale of faith, astronomy, and wonder. In this story of improbable friendship and faith, Sarah Perry captures the miraculous joy of being alive.

Enlightenment charts the intertwined lives of Thomas and Grace, kindred spirits who, though separated in age by thirty years, both grapple with their commitment to religion and desire for more. Though the arrival of love – wild, complicated, and not always reciprocated – threatens to drive the two apart, time brings them back to one another with new appreciation for life and its many wonders.

With her signature empathy and poignant prose, Perry’s latest explores the limitations of faith, the wonders of the universe, and the sheer miracle of being alive. In conversation with Harry Josephine Giles, she takes the stage to discuss love, astronomy, and what lies at the intersection of science and religion.

Sarah Perry is the internationally best-selling author of the novels Melmoth, The Essex Serpent and After Me Comes the Flood. She is a winner of the Waterstone’s Book of the Year Award and the British Book of the Year Award and has been nominated for major literary prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award.

This event will be chaired by writer and performer Harry Josephine Giles. Her work includes the verse novel Deep Wheel Orcadia and poetry collections Tonguit and The Games.