James Runcie: The Great Passion: James Runcie [2022] hardback ZCHAR Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the

Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the chance to take the trip of a lifetime

'A gorgeous setting

from the city streets to the country manor

and his letters home are an unusually light take on day-to-day life on the front

recently executed for treason

James Runcie: The Great Passion: James Runcie [2022] hardback ZCHAR Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the'A masterpiece' SCOTSMAN 'A wise, refreshing novel, and a touching human story Runcie has an expert imagination' HILARY MANTEL Love and Death. Grief and Joy. Music that lasts forever. Leipzig, 1726. Eleven year old Stefan Silbermann, a humble organ maker's son, has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he struggles to stay afloat in a school where the teachers are as casually cruel as the students.