Sarah Perry – författare

En uppslukande roman som jämförts med Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker och Hilary Mantel och tagit Storbritannien med storm.

London 1893. Cora Seaborne är fortfarande ung men har just blivit änka, och nu förväntar sig omgivningen att hon ska snöra åt korsetten, klä sig i svart och dra sig tillbaka med en knähund i famnen. Men äktenskapet var inte särskilt lyckligt, och rollen som viktoriansk societetsfru passade aldrig den egensinniga och frihetstörstande Cora.

Hon bestämmer sig för att lämna storstaden för landsbygden i Essex, tillsammans med sin socialistiskt orienterade väninna Martha och sin mycket speciella son Francis. De hamnar i den lilla staden Colchester, där rykten om ett mystiskt odjur har skapat masshysteri hos lokalbefolkningen.

Coras teori är att det rör sig om en oupptäckt art som hon är fast besluten att hitta och klassificera. Hon finner en oväntad vän och intellektuell jämlike i traktens präst William Ransome. Tillsammans söker de svaret på gåtan, samtidigt som Will och Cora oundvikligen dras till varandra.

Etta på Sunday Times bästsäljarlista, belönad med det brittiska bokhandelspriset Waterstones Book of the Year och British Book Awards Overall Book of the Year och nominerad till en lång rad priser, däribland Costa Book Award och Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

SOON TO BE A TELEVISION ADAPTATION STARRING CLAIRE DANES

A Kirkus Review Best Book of 2017 * A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * Costa Book Award Finalist

"A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it''s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home."  -New York Times

“An irresistible new novel…the most delightful heroine since Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.”  -Washington Post

London, 1893. 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 an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. 

Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. 

Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent’s existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora’s London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences. 

Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different—and surprising—guises it can take.

“A beautiful, dream-like, unsettling narrative in which every word, like a small jewel, feels carefully chosen, considered and placed. Rarely do debut novels come as assured and impressive as this one.” —Sarah Waters, New York Times bestselling author of The Paying Guests

Elegant, sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth.

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 his arrival. They seem to be waiting for something else, too—something final…

Written before Sarah Perry’s ascension to an internationally bestselling author, After Me Comes the Flood is a spectacular novel of obsession, conviction and providence. 

Brought to you by Penguin.Enlightenment is a story of love and astronomy, told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friendsThomas 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 for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of romantic love.Thomas falls for James Bower, who runs the local museum. Together they develop an obsession with the vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and whose identity might finally be revealed when a startling discovery is made. As Thomas fears a broken heart, he comes to find solace in astronomy: might it offer as much as earthly or even divine love? Meanwhile Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth former. They are drawn recklessly 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 their place in it.This ambitious novel about love and faith and science is Sarah Perry''s finest work to date.''Hugely talented''SARAH WATERS, author of FINGERSMITH''Here is a writer who understands life''JESSIE BURTON, author of THE MINIATURIST©2024 Sarah Perry (P)2024 Penguin Audio