The Road to Grantchester
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4.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The captivating prequel to the treasured Grantchester series follows the life, loves, and losses of young Sidney Chambers in postwar London.
It is 1938, and eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing the quickstep with Amanda Kendall at her brother Robert's birthday party at the Caledonian Club. No one can believe, on this golden evening, that there could ever be another war.
Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross and lost his best friend on the battlefields of Italy. The carefree youth that he and his friends were promised has been blown apart, just like the rest of the world--and Sidney, carrying a terrible, secret guilt, must decide what to do with the rest of his life. But he has heard a call: constant, though quiet, and growing ever more persistent. To the incredulity of his family and the derision of his friends--the irrepressible actor Freddie and the beautiful, vivacious Amanda--Sidney must now negotiate his path to God: the course of which, much like true love, never runs smooth.
The Road to Grantchester will delight new and old fans alike and finally tell the touching, engaging, and surprising origin story of the Grantchester Mysteries' beloved archdeacon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Runcie's exceptional seventh novel featuring Sidney Chambers (after 2017's Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love), a prequel, opens with an extended section set during WWII. In 1943, Sidney, and his best friend, Robert Kendall, who are soldiers in a Scots Guards battalion, are serving on the Italian front. Sidney's efforts to survive the conflict, both physically and mentally, are aided by the Rev. Nev Finnie, a battlefield chaplain who proves crucial to Sidney's search for meaning and purpose after the war. Runcie is equally effective in portraying Sidney's decision to become an Anglican minister and his struggles about his feelings for Robert's sister, Amanda. Superior prose is a plus (a stranger whom Sidney passes on the street has "a face that has grown into the idea that most people will ignore him"). While Sidney has only one passing mystery to solve, fans of Runcie's sophisticated mixing of whodunit plots with explorations of the human psyche in prior entries will relish getting a fuller picture of Sidney's path toward a life in the church.
