Enlightenment

A story of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends

***AN OBSERVER FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024***

‘A complete masterwork’ SARAH HALL

‘A beautifully nuanced novel of love in all its aspects’ SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN

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.

A real page-turning read. Best book I’ve read all year — Martina Cole, author of Close on The Four Winds
I didn’t just love this book, I became obsessed with it . . . The characters were flawed and vulnerable, strong and naive, and Hannah has delivered a masterclass in all the different ways love can both save us and destroy us — Karen Swan, author of The Stolen Hours on The Great Alone
Epic . . . By the end, I was surrounded by snow-drifts of tissues damp with my tears — The Washington Post on The Great Alone
Great characters, great plots, great emotions: who could ask for more in a novel? — Isabel Allende, author of Violeta on The Nightingale
Movingly written and plotted with the skill of Greek tragedy. You’ll keep turning the pages until the last racking sob — Daily Mail on The Nightingale

Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Imprint: Jonathan Cape UK
Publication date: 02/05/2024