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Sign up todayThe Great Passion
Narrator
Pip Torrens
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Length
8 hours 34 minutes
Language
English
Bloomsbury presents The Great Passion by James Runcie, read by Pip Torrens.
From acclaimed bestselling author James Runcie, a meditation on grief and music, told through the story of Bach’s writing of the St. Matthew Passion.
In 1727, Stefan Silbermann is a grief-stricken thirteen-year-old, struggling with the death of his mother and his removal to a school in distant Leipzig. Despite his father’s insistence that he try not to think of his mother too much, Stefan is haunted by her absence, and, to make matters worse, he’s bullied by his new classmates. But when the school’s cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, takes notice of his new pupil’s beautiful singing voice and draws him from the choir to be a soloist, Stefan’s life is permanently changed.
Over the course of the next several months, and under Bach’s careful tutelage, Stefan’s musical skill progresses, and he is allowed to work as a copyist for Bach’s many musical works. But mainly, drawn into Bach’s family life and away from the cruelty in the dorms and the lonely hours of his mourning, Stefan begins to feel at home. When another tragedy strikes, this time in the Bach family, Stefan bears witness to the depths of grief, the horrors of death, the solace of religion, and the beauty that can spring from even the most profound losses.
Joyous, revelatory, and deeply moving, The Great Passion is an imaginative tour de force that tells the story of what it was like to sing, play, and hear Bach’s music for the very first time.
James Runcie is an award-winning film-maker, playwright and literary curator. He is the author of twelve novels that have been translated into twelve languages, including the seven books in the Grantchester Mysteries series. He has been Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, London, and Commissioning Editor for Arts on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Scotland.
www.jamesruncie.com
www.grantchestermysteries.com
@james_runcie
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Audiobook details
Author:
James Runcie
Narrator:
Pip Torrens
ISBN:
9781635579840
Length:
8 hours 34 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:
March 15, 2022
Edition:
Unabridged
Libro.fm rank:
#25,156 Overall
Genre rank:
#2,491 in Historical Fiction
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