Hey, it's Empire's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbong. I didn't know this, but Sarah Perry,

the author of the best-selling book, The Essex Serpent, comes from a pretty strict religious background.

It's literally called The Strict Baptists. And her new novel, Enlightenment, is all about a guy

giving serious considerations of the cosmos, the giant rocks doing their thing

way up there out in space. This isn't to say that the two ideas are contrary to each other.

In fact, in this interview with NPR Scott Simon, Sarah Perry talks about looking up at the

stories and feeling a sensation similar to God. That's coming up after the break.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky

conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR reporters

on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sarah Perry's novel, Enlightenment opens as the Hail Bob comet approaches Earth in 1997.

Thomas Hart, who writes a local column for the Essex Chronicle in Britain,

looks into the sky. It comforts me to think of us all in motion, he writes. Helpless against

the forces of time and fate, we are just like the Earth. Then he adds, quoting a noted astronomer,

significantly small, but born through the stars.

What follows is a novel that gives us human lives in orbit, drawing strength and absorbing loss from one another,

and confronting what it may mean to share this life of faith and fate.

Sarah Perry, author of the bestseller, The Essex Serpent, joins us now from Norwich in the UK.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

Let me begin by asking you to tell us about Thomas Hart.

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