Hey, I'm David Kern.

I'm Heidi White.

And I'm Sean Johnson.

And you are listening to Close Reads, a podcast for the Incurable Reader on which we are discussing James Runcie's novel, The Great Passion.

And in particular, we're going to talk about all of it.

We're going to talk about the whole novel.

We're going to talk about the ending, which means that next week is a Q&A week. So feel free to post your questions over on the thread,

over on this close reads.substack.com on the chat feature. And we will get to as many questions as we can

next week. But first, of course, we're going to give it our best shot at talking about the ending. It is that time of year, though.

It's December 23rd when this episode is dropping.

We're recording it a few days before that.

That means that it is officially, as of the day that this is dropping the Christmas week.

So, you know, maybe we're joining you on your baking, you're glazing, your frosting, your whipping,

your, uh, give me something else, guys. What is another, you're, you're flipping, you're,

wrapping, you're wrapping, you're moving away from food, you're driving, maybe we're shopping,

maybe we're in the earbuds. Anyway, we're alongside you for this Christmas.

All of your festive holiday needs.

That's right.

You're caroling out in the snow, maybe?

I was going to say, listen, some people, it's Christmas Eve.

They put on some Christmas music and everyone's doing things around the house and you're

feeling festive and you put on, I don't know, the white Christmas soundtrack or some Bing Crosby, you know, just a Bing Crab, maybe a good jazz

...