The Piano Tuner
A Novel
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Notable Book
A San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year
“A gripping and resonant novel. . . . It immerses the reader in a distant world with startling immediacy and ardor. . . . Riveting.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
In 1886 a shy, middle-aged piano tuner named Edgar Drake receives an unusual commission from the British War Office: to travel to the remote jungles of northeast Burma and there repair a rare piano belonging to an eccentric army surgeon who has proven mysteriously indispensable to the imperial design. From this irresistible beginning, The Piano Tuner launches readers into a world of seductive, vibrantly rendered characters, and enmeshes them in an unbreakable spell of storytelling.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Mild-mannered piano tuner Edgar Drake seems like an odd hero to lead us through a story about 19th-century Burma. Sent to Southeast Asia by the British War Office, Edgar’s been tasked with tuning a rare piano while the Shan revolt and other conflicts rage. As Edgar gradually awakens to the social complexities of the political situation, author Daniel Mason channels a deep knowledge of the region’s geography and history to create an intriguing and compelling read. Mason’s lyrical writing made this the kind of novel we didn’t want to end.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Twenty-six-year-old Mason has penned a satisfying, if at times rather slow, debut historical novel. Edgar Drake lives a quiet life in late 19th-century London as a tuner of rare pianos. When he's summoned to Burma to repair the instrument of an eccentric major, Anthony Carroll, Edgar bids his wife good-bye and begins the months-long journey east. The first half of the book details his trip, and while Mason's descriptions of the steamships and trains of Europe and India are entertaining, the narrative tends to drag; Edgar is the only real character readers have met, and any conflicts he might encounter are unclear. Things pick up when Edgar meets the unconventional Carroll, who has built a paradise of sorts in the Burmese jungle. Edgar ably tunes the piano, but this turns out to be the least of his duties, as Carroll seeks his services on a mission to make peace between the British and the local Shan people. During his stay at Carroll's camp, Edgar falls for a local beauty, learns to appreciate the magnificence of Burma's landscape and customs and realizes the absurdity of the war between the British and the Burmese. While Mason's writing smoothly evokes Burma's beauty, and the idea that music can foster peace is compelling, his work features so many familiar literary pieces the nerdy Englishman; the steamy locale; the unjust war; the surprisingly cultured locals that readers may find themselves wishing they were turning the pages of Orwell's Burmese Days or E.M. Forster's A Passage to India instead.
