ENLIGHTENMENT
By Sarah Perry
Jonathan Cape. 400 pages. £20.00
ISBN 978 1 787 334 991
Enlightenment is a secular book, framed in a community in the fictional town of Aldleigh, a version of Chelmsford, in Essex, were most of the characters have some kind of connection with Bethesda Chapel, which draws on a Strict and Particular Baptist church where, Perry says, in an interview for The Guardian, ‘I spent an enormous part of my childhood and youth.’
Thomas, the main protagonist, is a gay man who lives a solitary life, fascinated by the heavens, and writes a column for the local paper, while being in love with the married head of the local museums service. His life pursues the forgotten history of a woman who he sees in the background of a photo taken on the day Bethesda opened in 1888, and who he begins to suspect first discovered a certain comet, the appearances of which in 1997, 2008 and 2017, anchor the flow of time through the novel.
