
Enlightenment
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Alex Jennings
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By:
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Sarah Perry
About this listen
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Telegraph, Washington Post, The New Yorker. LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE.
“Like A.S. Byatt’s Possession, Enlightenment is a baroque, genre-bending novel of ideas, ghosts and hidden histories. A richly layered epic....a heartfelt paean to the consolations of the sublime, where religion and science meet." -- Telegraph
"Read it, then read it again. This is a book full of unexpected wonders." -- Literary Review
From the author of The Essex Serpent, a dazzling novel 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.
©2024 Sarah Perry (P)2024 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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The Price of Redemption
- Tides of Magic, Book 1
- By: Shawn Carpenter
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite her powerful magic, Marquese Enid d’Tancreville must flee her homeland to escape death at the hands of the Theocratic Revolution. When a Theocratic warship overtakes the ship bearing her to safety, Enid is spared capture by the timely intervention of the Albion frigate Alarum, under the commend of Commander Rue Nath. These circumstances make for an odd alliance, and Enid finds herself replacing the Alarum’s recently slain sea mage. Now an officer under Nath’s command, Enid is thrust into a strange maritime world full of confusing customs, duties, and language.
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A fusion of High Fantasy and classic Swashbuckling Pulp.
- By Eliot Lyons on 10-10-24
By: Shawn Carpenter
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The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
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Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
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The Mythic Dream
- By: Dominik Parisien - editor, Navah Wolfe - editor
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Madeleine L’Engle once said, “When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.” The Mythic Dream gathers together 18 stories that reclaim the myths that shaped our collective past, and use them to explore our present and future. From Hades and Persephone to Kali, from Loki to Inanna, this anthology explores retellings of myths across cultures and civilizations.
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it was ok.
- By latasha on 03-24-21
By: Dominik Parisien - editor, and others
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The Fourth Child
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Winter
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The author of Break in Case of Emergency follows up her the “extraordinary debut” (The Guardian) with a moving novel about motherhood and marriage, adolescence and bodily autonomy, family and love, religion and sexuality, and the delicate balance between the purity of faith and the messy reality of life.
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Just OK - Considered Bailing
- By Madeleine Homan on 04-18-21
By: Jessica Winter
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Feast Your Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Myla Goldberg
- Narrated by: Myla Goldberg, Samantha Desz, Lisa Flanagan, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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The first novel in nearly a decade from Myla Goldberg, the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Bee Season - a compelling and wholly original story about a female photographer grappling with ambition and motherhood, a balancing act familiar to women of every generation.
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Addictive Book.
- By Sky on 04-30-19
By: Myla Goldberg
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Honeycomb
- By: Joanne M. Harris
- Narrated by: Joanne M. Harris
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The beauty of stories; you never know where they will take you. Full of dreams and nightmares, Honeycomb is an entrancing mosaic novel of original fairy tales from best-selling author Joanne M. Harris. The toymaker who wants to create the perfect wife; the princess whose heart is won by words, not actions; the tiny dog whose confidence far outweighs his size; and the sinister Lacewing King who rules over the Silken Folk. These are just a few of the weird and wonderful creatures who populate Joanne Harris’s first collection of fairy tales.
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Dark and jumbled
- By Jeffrey C Jahnke MD on 10-01-24
By: Joanne M. Harris
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The Price of Redemption
- Tides of Magic, Book 1
- By: Shawn Carpenter
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Despite her powerful magic, Marquese Enid d’Tancreville must flee her homeland to escape death at the hands of the Theocratic Revolution. When a Theocratic warship overtakes the ship bearing her to safety, Enid is spared capture by the timely intervention of the Albion frigate Alarum, under the commend of Commander Rue Nath. These circumstances make for an odd alliance, and Enid finds herself replacing the Alarum’s recently slain sea mage. Now an officer under Nath’s command, Enid is thrust into a strange maritime world full of confusing customs, duties, and language.
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A fusion of High Fantasy and classic Swashbuckling Pulp.
- By Eliot Lyons on 10-10-24
By: Shawn Carpenter
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The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
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Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
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The Mythic Dream
- By: Dominik Parisien - editor, Navah Wolfe - editor
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Madeleine L’Engle once said, “When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.” The Mythic Dream gathers together 18 stories that reclaim the myths that shaped our collective past, and use them to explore our present and future. From Hades and Persephone to Kali, from Loki to Inanna, this anthology explores retellings of myths across cultures and civilizations.
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it was ok.
- By latasha on 03-24-21
By: Dominik Parisien - editor, and others
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The Fourth Child
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Winter
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author of Break in Case of Emergency follows up her the “extraordinary debut” (The Guardian) with a moving novel about motherhood and marriage, adolescence and bodily autonomy, family and love, religion and sexuality, and the delicate balance between the purity of faith and the messy reality of life.
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Just OK - Considered Bailing
- By Madeleine Homan on 04-18-21
By: Jessica Winter
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Feast Your Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Myla Goldberg
- Narrated by: Myla Goldberg, Samantha Desz, Lisa Flanagan, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The first novel in nearly a decade from Myla Goldberg, the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Bee Season - a compelling and wholly original story about a female photographer grappling with ambition and motherhood, a balancing act familiar to women of every generation.
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Addictive Book.
- By Sky on 04-30-19
By: Myla Goldberg
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Gobbelino London & a Scourge of Pleasantries
- Gobbelino London, PI, Book 1
- By: Kim M. Watt
- Narrated by: Paul Tyreman
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Find a missing book. That was the job the woman in the Doc Martens gave us. Easy money, right? Only now it seems she's actually an ancient, powerful sorcerer, and the book is a Book of Power that doesn't want to be found. It wants to tear reality apart at the seams, and it'll use anyone it can to do it. So now we've got one spectacularly displeased sorcerer, a hungry, still-missing book, a dentist with bad hygiene, and a neighbourhood having some reality issues to deal with. Plus about a day before the book turns our world - and us - inside out.
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Delightful series
- By celestial on 06-23-24
By: Kim M. Watt
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The Light Brigade
- By: Kameron Hurley
- Narrated by: Cara Gee, Jackie Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The Light Brigade: it’s what soldiers fighting the war against Mars call the ones who come back...different. Grunts in the corporate corps get busted down into light to travel to and from interplanetary battlefronts. Everyone is changed by what the corps must do in order to break them down into light. Those who survive learn to stick to the mission brief - no matter what actually happens during combat. Dietz, a fresh recruit in the infantry, begins to experience combat drops that don’t sync up with the platoon’s.
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Pseudoscience and a very low faith in the ability of people to know what is good
- By Mitch on 02-18-20
By: Kameron Hurley
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Bright Objects
- By: Ruby Todd
- Narrated by: Casey Withoos
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Sylvia Knight is losing hope that the person who killed her husband will ever face justice. Since the night of the hit-and-run, her world has been shrouded in hazy darkness—until she meets Theo St. John, the discoverer of a rare comet soon to be visible to the naked eye. As the comet begins to brighten, Sylvia wonders what the apparition might signify. She is soon drawn into the orbit of local mystic Joseph Evans, who believes the comet’s arrival is nothing short of a divine message.
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what an incredible read
- By Ben Johnson on 09-26-24
By: Ruby Todd
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Melmoth
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Jan Cramer
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters - and now it is heading in our direction.It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts - or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore.
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very good. intense
- By Nick Thomson on 11-25-18
By: Sarah Perry
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The Hunt for History
- On the Trail of the World's Lost Treasures - from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill, and Einstein to the Secret Recordings On-Board JFK's Air Force One
- By: Nathan Raab, Luke Barr
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Nathan Raab, America’s preeminent rare documents dealer, delivers a “diverting account of treasure hunting in the fast lane” (The Wall Street Journal) that recounts his years as the Sherlock Holmes of historical artifacts, questing after precious finds and determining their authenticity.
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I wished it was longer
- By NANAS on 04-15-20
By: Nathan Raab, and others
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The Wrong Kind of Woman
- A Novel
- By: Sarah McCraw Crow
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In late 1970, Oliver Desmarais drops dead in his front yard while hanging Christmas lights. In the year that follows, his widow, Virginia, struggles to find her place on the campus of the elite New Hampshire men’s college where Oliver was a professor. While Virginia had always shared her husband’s prejudices against the four outspoken, never-married women on the faculty — dubbed the Gang of Four by their male counterparts — she now finds herself depending on them, even joining their work to bring the women’s movement to Clarendon College.
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Flashback to the ‘70’s
- By RueRue on 06-30-24
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The Museum of Forgotten Memories
- By: Anstey Harris
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Four years after her husband Richard’s death, Cate Morris is let go from her teaching job and unable to pay rent on the London flat she shares with her son, Leo. With nowhere else to turn, they pack up and venture to Richard’s ancestral Victorian museum in the small town of Crouch-on-Sea. Despite growing pains and a grouchy caretaker, Cate begins to fall in love with the quirky taxidermy exhibits and sprawling grounds, and she makes it her mission to revive them. But threats from both inside and outside the museum derail her plans and send her spiraling into self-doubt.
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A lovely surprise
- By Kimberly on 03-03-25
By: Anstey Harris
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The Hopkins Manuscript
- A Novel
- By: R.C. Sherriff
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton, Lameece Issaq
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Edgar Hopkins is a retired math teacher with a strong sense of self-importance, whose greatest pride is winning poultry-breeding contests. When not meticulously caring for his Bantam, Edgar is an active member of the British Lunar Society. Thanks to that affiliation, Edgar becomes one of the first people to learn that the moon is on a collision course with the earth. Members of the society are sworn to secrecy, but eventually the moon begins to loom so large in the sky that the truth can no longer be denied.
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A cosy catastrophe masterpiece
- By Jim Harris on 01-09-23
By: R.C. Sherriff
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After Me Comes the Flood
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to shut his bookshop early, and possibly forever, and drives out of London to see his brother. When his car breaks down on an isolated road, he goes looking for help and finds a dilapidated house. As he approaches, a laughing woman he's never seen before walks out, addresses him by name and explains she's been waiting for him. Entering the home, John discovers an enigmatic clan of residents all of whom seem to know who he is, and also claim they have been awaiting him arrival.
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Stuck in the mud
- By Erica Niemi on 04-28-24
By: Sarah Perry
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Where Peace Is Lost
- A Novel
- By: Valerie Valdes
- Narrated by: Rebecca Mozo
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Five years ago, Kelana Gardavros lost everything in the war against the Pale empire. Now Kel Garda is just another refugee living on the edge of an isolated star system. No one knows she was once a member of an Order whose military arm was disbanded and scattered across the galaxy. And no one knows that if her enemies found her, they might destroy the entire world to get rid of her. Kel’s past intrudes in the form of a long-dormant Pale war machine, suddenly reactivated. If the massive automaton isn’t stopped, at best it will carve a swath of devastation that displaces thousands of people.
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A fun adventure
- By AngieRuns on 09-08-23
By: Valerie Valdes
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Held
- A Novel
- By: Anne Michaels
- Narrated by: Anne Michaels
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures
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Would give six stars if possible
- By love it on 08-31-24
By: Anne Michaels
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One by One by One
- Making a Small Difference Amid a Billion Problems
- By: Aaron Berkowitz
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Aaron Berkowitz had just finished his neurology training when he was sent to Haiti on his first assignment with Partners in Health. There, he meets Janel, a 23-year-old man with the largest brain tumor Berkowitz or any of his neurosurgeon colleagues at Harvard Medical School have ever seen. Determined to live up to Partners in Health’s mission statement “to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need”, Berkowitz tries to save Janel’s life by bringing him back to Boston for a 12-hour surgery.
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Excellent
- By Alan on 02-07-21
By: Aaron Berkowitz
What listeners say about Enlightenment
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-13-24
So lost
in spite of the gay character; I'm gay, I just couldn't stay with this long enough to see where that part of the story would go. I really wanted to hang in, but the story left me feeling uncomfortable for some strange reason. it had an odd style and I sometimes wondered it the performance; the interpretation, was the problem,
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1 person found this helpful
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- HelenaHill
- 09-22-24
The reader of this profound story is excellent!
Sarah Perry writing is deep and melodious. Hard to understand so I found the audible version much easier. Loved it.
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- Bernice Brown
- 12-15-24
Maybe I’m too simple for this book
We follow Thomas and Grace over a span of 20 years and their struggle between their faith and what they want in life. Enveloped in all
of this is Maria Vaduva a long deceased astronomer who is very much an acting character in the book. The book is split into 3 parts. I have to admit that I almost gave up quite a few times as I found the first 2 parts long and drawn out. With that said, the third part of the was absolutely delightful and saved the book for me. All in all Enlightenment is the story of 2 kindred spirits, unrequited love, and the stars. I would definitely recommend pushing through this one.
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- Jean Marie T. Walls
- 12-20-24
Disappointed
Based on the descriptions of the novel, I had high expectations. However, the quality of the writing did not make up for the plodding nature of the narrative. There were some nuggets of “quoteability” that flashed across like the comet being sought in the novel, but not enough to convince me of the hype surrounding this book.
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- Sara C. Weinberg
- 09-20-24
Insightful and lush story
Beautiful story full of life’s loves, Triumphs, and disappointments. Well worth a listen. Enlightening for sure with a historical fiction kind of twist.
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- Thea Hartman
- 03-23-25
It’s simple. Life is complex.
I found this book more enjoyable than I first thought during the opening chapters. It seemed quite dark. The spooky mood continues throughout. This could be described as a ghost story, but it became less murky in later chapters as the main character gained inner clarity and perspective. The book is, as they say, psychological. But it is really a love story. It explores love at times by its lacking. And that’s where love is found.
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- mary
- 06-16-24
Oddly uncompelling
A frustrating novel, filled with many ridiculous coincidences as the characters tracked down evidence of a 19th century female astronomer. I often couldn’t figure out why it was written in the way it was, historical artifacts discovered in ridiculously unbelievable moments. Deus ex machina, but to no satisfying effect. I also found many of the characters underwritten. Nathan—does he have any substance? Why is Maria from Romania? And why so many injuries to characters? I appreciated the book’s approach to loneliness and solitude. I got a glimpse of what the author was trying to accomplish, but I was frequently distracted by the odd qualities of the plot, and don’t feel it succeeded as the epic tale it hoped to be. Excellent narration.
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2 people found this helpful
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- ReallyNelie
- 09-04-24
Beautiful writing unique story, might relisten to parts
This audiobook seems very unique to me. The basic idea of a protagonist in one timeline getting drawn into a mystery in the past where slowly that past story is revealed is not unique but the people involved in the story are very unique in their own stories and the way they become involved with each other. The writing is just amazing. At times just wonderfully richly descriptive both in terms of how physical settings are described and how people are described. It’s also often thoughtful , creative, insightful almost meditative in places , especially in the parts that are given as excerpts from the newspaper column about astronomy written by the main protagonist, Thomas. Woven throughout is the nuanced exploration of what love is and what is worth having faith in. This review doesn’t do justice to the book which I loved. I will say that I read one review which said the writing felt almost 19th century in tone and I can see why that person said that. The writing is very rich and detailed and nothing in this story moves quickly although there is more than one surprising and unexpected event. In my listening, I realized for me this is a book where you want breaks to digest things so I like that this the three large sections were divided into into smaller mostly hour long- ish chunks. I would take a break after each chunk often not returning until the next day. More than once, I found myself relistening to pieces of this but enjoying the relisten because the writing is so beautifully crafted. But for me because of the richness of it it wouldn’t work as a book for a day at the beach or an airplane trip. It needs breaks for digestion!!!
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1 person found this helpful
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- llbassman
- 03-28-25
Unusual, gothic story
An interesting story made better by an excellent narrator. Very British. A reflection on the dignity of every day lives.
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