The Great Passion by James Runcie

Love and Death. Grief and Joy.

Music that lasts forever.
 
Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann has just lost his mother.

Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he is rescued from his homesickness and grief by the Cantor: Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Stefan is brought into the Bach household as an apprentice - until a devastating loss brings his period of sanctuary to a close. Something is happening, though.

In the depths of his loss, the Cantor is writing a new work. As Stefan watches the work rehearsed, he realises he is witness to the creation of one of the most extraordinary pieces of music that has ever been written.