Sarah Perry Books

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick - A BookPage Best Book of the Year - A Poets & Writers Notable Nonfiction Debut of the Year "Stunning . . . A graceful and powerful memorial."--Entertainment Weekly "Raw and perfect."--Laura Miller, Slate When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse; she took it as a good omen for her and her mother, Crystal. But that moment of darkness foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine. It took twelve years to find the killer. In that time, Sarah rebuilt her life amid abandonment, police interrogations, and the exacting toll of trauma. She dreamed of a trial, but when the day came, it brought no closure. It was not her mother's death she wanted to understand, but her life. She began her own investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, deep into the darkness of a small American town. A memoir of "unerring power and hard-won wisdom" and a "tender elegy"* for a mother lost, with After the Eclipse "Perry succeeds in restoring her mother's humanity and her own" (New York Times Book Review). * Margo Jefferson

Imagination is the name of the game, and Perry plays it with distinction. Eye- catching, mind-bending illustrations.-Booklist

A defence and celebration of the Essex Girl by the best-selling author of The Essex Serpent.

A dazzling new work of literary fiction from the author of The Essex Serpent, 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 to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit. Thomas and Grace will ask themselves what it means to love and be loved, what is fixed and what is mutable, how much of our fate is predestined and written in the stars, and whether they can find their way back to each other. A thrillingly ambitious novel of friendship, faith, and unrequited love, rich in symmetry and symbolism, Enlightenment is a shimmering wonder of a book and Sarah Perry’s finest work to date. 

A thrilling and unforgettable historical novel of love and intrigue.

From the author of the bestselling The Essex Serpent comes a darkly inventive and deeply moving novel that speaks urgently to our times.

The haunting and hypnotic debut novel from the author of the bestselling The Essex Serpent.