Read Online The Road to Grantchester James Runcie Books

Product details Series Grantchester Paperback 336 pages Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing (May 7, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1635573947

The Road to Grantchester James Runcie Books Reviews

• This book fills in what led the Chambers becoming an Anglican priest, going through the war, serving on the front, having a fellow helping him through the worst of it. Also clarifies his relationships with the young woman, the sister of his best friend, who will be with him, at least in spirit, throughout his life. I found some of it painful, but well written, and well worth it!
• Those who have enjoyed the series of UK mysteries set first the delightful town of Grantchester and now in Ely, will love this prequel. I am undecided whether those new to the series should read this first, or after they have sampled earlier books in the series. I think it does not matter. Yet, this book is perfectly suited for those who are not mystery lovers at all. If a reader wants to read a realistic account of the horrors of the Second World War in Europe and the struggle for ethical wholeness of one its survivors, this is the book for you. Unlike the others in the series, it includes just a taste of the whodunnit genre, but after reading it, one will want to read the classic mysteries that precede it.
• I am loving this series and am ready to start the next book. I think everyone will really enjoy this series.
• I'm so glad Runcie wrote this book, because it explains the source of Sydney Chambers' demons and how he decided to go into the priesthood.
• This is the prequel to the wonderful series that is Grantchester. But here's the thing of art and form, of image and words. I love the tv series. Because I'm addicted to the visual presentation of Grantchester, I adore Sidney and all the other characters. I ask myself a question. How to divorce that exploration of the visual senses from the literary imaginative senses? Need I?
  Bother! I can't! I keep seeing the actors doing their thing. I hear their voices in the prose. Should my already imaged characters be different from my imagined literary characters? Does it lessen the story's ability to stand in its own right? Well you can't put the genie back in the bottle! That's enough of a convoluted thought process, I just have go with what I've perceived through all the mediums. Hopefully one informs and enhances the other.
  It's pre war 1938 London and the story opens with Sidney's best friend, Robert Kendall's eighteenth birthday dance. Sidney dances with Robert's sister, fifteen year old Amanda. Amanda decides that she will call him Chambers. And this marks the beginning of them knowing each other.
  Five years later we see Sidney as he's about to enter the European Theatre of World War II. In Italy to be precise.
  We experience Chambers' sense of loss as those beside him die in unspeakable conditions and in nightmarish battles. With him we rage at the hopelessness of soldiers being fodder, sent up mountainsides only to be repeatedly mowed down. We understand how all this is shaping Sidney into what he will become.
  As he tries to make sense of it all the idea of why, and the justness of a God looms large.
  The buildup, despite the horrors is steady but it's really only in the last chapters that more is revealed as Sidney realizes his calling to be a man of the cloth, under the umbrella of the Anglican Church. He struggles to capture his view of God, his relationship with God, and how that might inform his actions.
  The tension between Amanda and Sidney, the way their relationship just never quite gets the ground, the lost opportunities, is marked by Sidney's hesitations. He's always to measured, too late.
  The secret for that is unveiled.
  This prelude does indeed point the way for us to know more deeply the Sidney we love. To how he comes to be in Grantchester where the friends he surrounds himself with become ours, and to the never ending question of his relationship with Amanda.
  I enjoyed the journey.
  
  A Bloomsbury ARC via NetGalley
• I thought with Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love did the series end, However, James Runcie decided to go back in time and write about Sidney Chambers life before the stories in the first Grantchester book. And, what a treat this book was. To get to know a young Sidney, his experiences in the war, his call to be a priest, how he discovered his love for jazz. And, of course, his friendship with Amanda. I quite enjoyed this part of the story, Amanda being the little sister of his best friend and how she become such an important person in his life.
  
  It's such a fabulous novel. I listened to the audio version of this book and I enjoyed the book immensely. This is not in any way a crime novel, like how Sidney helps Geordie Keating in the rest of the books. There is death in this book, but it's not a mystery novel. It's a novel about how Sidney Chambers become the man we met in the Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death. If you are a fan of this series, or the TV series is this a must read book!