The Passion has two parts, and Runcie tells us the sermon was given between them. In the first part, the choir speaks of the guilt we all share, asking “Is it I” who betrayed Jesus, clamoring for Jesus to be punished for challenging the religious leaders. The music is dramatic. This is as beautifully composed as the music it refers to, and although the time period it is set in is nearly 300 years ago, there is so much that hasn’t changed. The school-boy bullying of a new student, the heartbreak of loss, unrequited love. A striving for the beauty in this world, and the desire to hold onto that beauty. The way that an opinion of a person is often based on one impression, or one flaw - as though we don’t all have flaws. The year is 1727. Thirteen-year-old Stefan Silbermann’s mother has recently died, and his father decides to send him to boarding school in Leipzig. At school, the other boys bully Stefan for his red hair. Immediately, a knife that his father gave him is stolen. Another boy named Stolle is especially unkind. This wise, refreshing novel takes us to the heart of Bach's life and work. James Runcie's expert imagination makes his picture of Leipzig specific and convincing, and behind the music's echo lies a touching human story. It offers a glimpse into a world more faithful and attentive than our own, but not alien to us: 'we listen to music as survivors,' the great Cantor says.”— Hilary Mantel This wise, refreshing novel takes us to the heart of Bach's life and work. James Runcie's expert imagination makes his picture of Leipzig specific and convincing, and behind the music's echo lies a touching human story. It offers a glimpse into a world more faithful and attentive than our own, but not alien to us: "we listen to music as survivors," the great Cantor says' - Hilary Mantel

Don’t cry for me, I’m going where music is born,” the devout J S Bach supposedly said on his deathbed. But James Runcie’s new novel explores the place where Bach’s music was born in rather more earthly terms. The “father of Western music” is here the work-hassled father of a chaotic human family in all its joy and grief. Brilliant ... Readers will be enriched by this novel and its glimpse at genius’ The Times, Historical Fiction of the Month A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. For perhaps we can only appreciate what it is to be alive by recognising what it means when that life is removed from us. We are ravaged by absence. The void opens around us…Then, afterwards, when life forces us to continue, and we resume what is left of our time on earth, we listen to music as survivors…We grow to understand that our wounds give life its richness…The Great Passion is a novel revering the life and work of JS Bach, as told by a young boy soprano in Leipzig' - Irish Independent

All the stars for this profoundly moving and lovely reflection on life, love, loss, and the beauty found in both music and silence. The secondary plot, which I found more interesting, is the portrait Runcie paints of Bach. He cleverly inserts Stefan into the composer's household, where he's permitted to stay while refining his craft. The young man becomes a "fly on the wall," so to speak, able to observe Bach as he interacts with his family and other musicians. The resulting depiction is remarkable; while at his core Runcie's Bach is a kind and caring person, he's not immune to fits of anger over a part poorly sung, envy over the success of a peer, sarcasm in response to his performer's complaints, or obsession over bringing his musical ideas to fruition. It's the character's imperfections that lend verisimilitude to the portrayal and create a complete and believable picture of what the man may have been like in the flesh.But somehow, out of the extremely difficult living conditions in the 18th century, incredible beauty erupted that still resonates 3 centuries later. Why? Much of the first part of the book is excellent. Stefan’s situation and state of mind are humanely and convincingly drawn. The juxtaposition of both the joy and struggle of becoming a real musician with the harshness of much of the rest of life is very effective and James Runcie writes very insightfully about the music itself. There is a touching infatuation by Stefan with one of Bach’s daughters (which may be a play on the book’s title). There were some longeurs in the middle, though; Bach’s sermonising did get a bit much at times and I felt that while Runcie knows a great deal about the cantatas which Bach wrote for each Sunday service and gave a good account of what each set text really meant, they did turn into a bit of a procession. So much so that when we arrived at the sublime Ich Habe Genug, including a moving account of why it was chosen for one of the singers, what should have been a profound moment just felt a bit flat.

What he has achieved is to draw together a major musical creation and its celebrated composer with a carefully crafted setting in Leipzig in 1726-7. ‘The Great Passion’, what we know as ’the St Matthew Passion’, Johann Sebastian Bach’s great offering to the world is depicted amidst a complex storyline which involves a young man from an organ-building family, with some musical understanding, being introduced to the challenging context of a school, of which Bach is the Cantor. Over the course of almost a year, Stefan will fall in love, engage in rivalry with Stolle for the soprano parts in Bach’s chorales, and learn to stand up for himself with the help of a kind oboist. He will also take part in the debut performance of Bach’s Passion chorale. The kindly, brilliant Bach can seem almost a madman in his demands on his singers, but the sublime result is the climax of the book. Bach takes him into his home, where he is looked after by Anna Magdalena. His musical talent grows under Bach’s tutoring, and he begins to fall in love. But tragedy overwhelms the household with the death of Bach’s three-year-old daughter, Etta. Faith is tested. Is untimely death a punishment? Why do the innocent suffer? Bach’s faith and obsessive brilliance dominate the narrative, but he is touchingly human in his failings.The play held true to the scripture (only adding a few changes to show more of the story in a smaller window of time) and was a wonderful way to try and imagine what it might have looked like to be present.