Sarah Perry is the award-winning author of three novels—After Me Comes the Flood, The Essex Serpent and Melmoth. Her work interrogates matters of faith, science and human suffering, and she is an extraordinary storyteller.

In this episode of Medicine Unboxed VOICES, Sarah speaks with Sam Guglani about her own encounter with illness and medicine, the value of fiction, the vagaries of moral judgment, and the presence of mystery in the pursuit of knowledge.

Executive producers: Sam Guglani, Peter Thomas

Music: Butterfly Song by Jocelyn Pook, vocal by Melanie Pappenheim, from 'Untold Things', Real World Records, 2001. Permission courtesy of the composer. https://realworldrecords.com/releases/untold-things/