The Chamber, John Grisham
The Chamber, John Grisham
62 Rating(s)
List: $24.95 | Sale: $17.47
Club: $12.47

The Chamber

Author: John Grisham

Narrator: Alexander Adams

Unabridged: 17 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/05/2000

Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A dark and thoughtful tale pulsing with moral uncertainties . . . Grisham is at his best.”—People

In Chicago’s top law firm, a young lawyer stands on the brink of a brilliant career. Now twenty-six-year-old Adam Hall is risking it all for a death-row killer and an impossible case: Sam Cayhall is a former Klansman and unrepentant racist facing the death penalty for a fatal bombing in 1967. Cayhall has run out of chances—except for one: a determined lawyer who just happens to be his grandson.

While the executioners prepare the gas chamber, while the protesters gather, and while the TV cameras wait, Adam has only days, hours, minutes to save his client. For between the two men is a chasm of shame, family lies, and secrets—including the one secret that could save Sam Cayhall’s life . . . or cost Adam his.

About John Grisham

John Ray Grisham, Jr. was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on February 8, 1955. Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and later from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He was a practicing criminal attorney for over ten years and then served in the House of Representatives from 1984 to 1990. He published his first novel in 1989 after working on it for five years. ‘A Time to Kill’, his first novel, launched his new career and was later made into a major motion picture. His first bestseller, ‘The Firm’, released in 1991, sold over seven million copies and was made into a box office hit starring Tom Cruise two years later. Almost twenty years later in 2012, a TV series was launched and picks up the life of Mitch McDeere and his family ten years after the events of the novel.

John Grisham has had his novels translated into more than forty languages and has sold nearly 300 million copies worldwide. He is a winner of the prestigious Galaxy British Book Award and is one of only three authors (the other two being Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowling) to ever sell two million copies of a first published novel. Nine of his novels (including ‘The Firm and ‘A Time to Kill’ have been made into major motion pictures.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Baba on February 14, 2024

Young lawyer Adam Hill has had only one real goal over the last few years, and he's finally made it, he gets to defend KKK-member, avid racist and convicted double Jewish child killer from his death penalty in The Chamber, a gas chamber! Oh, and one other thing, this avowed racist killer is Adam's g......more

Goodreads review by Julie on December 20, 2008

I thought this was one of the most impacting novels I have read for a long time. Grisham thoroughly explores the implications of the death penalty and creates a well-rounded and complex character in Sam Cayhall. You come to hate him and pity him, asking yourself whether he really deserves death and......more

Goodreads review by Shesh on October 10, 2012

Just finished rereading this amazing book. This isn't one of Grisham's more popular stories however this book was a life transforming experience for me. Two issues this book forced me to deal with on my first reading in 1994: 1) How can people - any people, "Cluckers" (KKK), the Taliban, street gang......more

Goodreads review by Natalie on January 29, 2018

Grisham uses fiction to make a compelling case for the abolition of the death penalty. I wouldn't describe this as a thriller, or even a drama, the pace is painfully slow. Sam is languishing on death row having been involved with the KKK in his younger years. He is now an old man preparing for death......more

Goodreads review by Shaun on May 26, 2016

4.5 stars How could Adam ever reconcile the past with the present? How could he fairly judge these people and their horrible deed when, but for a quirk of fate, he would have been right there in the middle of them had he been born forty years earlier?...If Sam was lynching at such an early age, wh......more

Quotes

“Totally hypnotic . . . full of booming, echoing prose . . . Scenes unfold and unfold and you can’t stop reading.”—The Washington Post

“Compelling . . . powerful . . . The Chamber will make readers think long and hard about the death penalty.”—USA Today

“The Chamber does grab hold and it doesn’t let go.”—The Boston Globe

“Mesmerizing . . . with an authority and originality . . . a grasp of literary complexity that makes Scott Turow’s novels pale by comparison.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“His best yet.”—The Houston Post

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