The Piano Tuner
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Product Description
Product Description
A hypnotic tale of myth, romance and self-discovery.
Book Description
On a misty London afternoon in 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the War Office: he must leave his wife, and his quiet life in London, to travel to the jungles of Burma to tune a rare Erhard grand piano. The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, an enigmatic British officer, whose success at making peace in the war-torn Shan States is legendary, but whose unorthodox methods have begun to attract suspicion. So begins the journey of the soft-spoken Edgar across Europe, the Red Sea, India, Burma, and at last into the remote highlands of the Shan States. En route he is entranced by the Doctor's letters and by the shifting cast of tale-spinners, soldiers and thieves who cross his path. As his captivation grows, however, so do his questions: about the Doctor's true motives, about an enchanting and elusive woman who travels with him into the jungle, about why he came. And, ultimately, whether he will ever be able to return home unchanged to the woman who awaits him there . . . Sensuous and lyrical, rich with passion and adventure, THE PIANO TUNER is an unforgettable and haunting novel.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has a lot going for it. The plotline is intriguing - an expert piano tuner, an authority on Erards, goes to darkest Burma to tune the piano of the eccentric but hugely effective Surgeon Major Carroll. The writer knows a lot about different aspects of his subject - sea travel in the late 19th. century, the topics which interest Carroll, Burmese history, the British presence in Burma, pianos and how to tune them .... all of that seems fine. It's fairly well written and moves forward in a competent way. But I seldom was really interested. Why? I think this is a book which works too hard. There is just too much validating detail, the stuff you need to make an exotic book like this come to life. It is too consciously written and it loses the naturalness and simplicity of a well-told tale. Once the tuner, Drake, got to Carroll's base I quite liked it, and I read the second half quickly, drawn on by the story, but I was never fully convinced and I did not find it compelling.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Highly imaginative, obsessive and truly magical novel by Daniel Mason. A combination of fiction, fantasy and travelogue, an ambitious but intriguing piece of work by Mason.
The plot seems to be travel fantasy - Edgar Drake, a piano tuner with perfection in Erards, travels in to darkest jungles of Burma and India.in 1886 to help the Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. A sea voyage and boat journey in to the remotest possible place one would imagine to repair and tune a piano - a special piano, a peacemaker.
The novel takes you to trip of tropical Burma, in the setting of British imperialism. By the time you will finish the novel you would have imagined the life, the people and the nature there. You would have relived Burma of 19th century, through the eyes of 21st century student.
At times, especially in initial few chapters, the story line seems to be very confusing and moves all over the place. But there are sensuous, magical and intriguing moments that haunt you until you finish the novel.
"The Piano Tuner" is a beautiful story and I hope Daniel Mason's next novel "A Far Country" (haven't read it yet) is as delightful as this one. Positively recommend reading atleast once.
good - imaginative, obsessive, intriguing, sensuous
not so good - not well researched, overemotional at places
-- ashutosh jhureley
The plot seems to be travel fantasy - Edgar Drake, a piano tuner with perfection in Erards, travels in to darkest jungles of Burma and India.in 1886 to help the Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. A sea voyage and boat journey in to the remotest possible place one would imagine to repair and tune a piano - a special piano, a peacemaker.
The novel takes you to trip of tropical Burma, in the setting of British imperialism. By the time you will finish the novel you would have imagined the life, the people and the nature there. You would have relived Burma of 19th century, through the eyes of 21st century student.
At times, especially in initial few chapters, the story line seems to be very confusing and moves all over the place. But there are sensuous, magical and intriguing moments that haunt you until you finish the novel.
"The Piano Tuner" is a beautiful story and I hope Daniel Mason's next novel "A Far Country" (haven't read it yet) is as delightful as this one. Positively recommend reading atleast once.
good - imaginative, obsessive, intriguing, sensuous
not so good - not well researched, overemotional at places
-- ashutosh jhureley
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mason's The Piano Tuner may well become a classic: it is an ambitious endeavour to come to terms with haunting issues. While unravelling the journey of Edgar Drake to late nineteen-century Burma to tune an Erard piano, Mason probes deeply into the foundations of British imperialism and, consequently, into the misperception of the other, the exotic and the unknown. As Edgar himself is forced to admit "...I have come to think that 'bringing music and culture here' is more subtle - there are art and music here already - their own art, their own music". Yet, the protagonist's quest is as much related to knowing the role of music, and art in general, in international politics as a personal journey whose return is ever deferred by a series of events: his growing curiosity and empathy towards Anthony Carroll, who had ordered the piano to be taken to the Burmese jungle in the belief that "music, like force, can bring peace" ; his infatuation for Khin Myo, Carol's mistress; and the realisation that he has "seen more than he could have imagined and he has understood more of what he has seen, but at the same time this incompleteness grows more acute" .
Indeed, this feeling of incompleteness pervades the narrative. The stories he hears about Carroll offer nothing more than an incomplete portrait of the doctor. Further, the letters he sends home only concur to this feeling, as Edgar admits that he has "written so much, and yet still he has described so little of what he has done or seen".
Like the protagonist, the reader embarks on a journey through exotic places, scents, textures, languages and, ultimately, ways of perceiving reality only to discover that the truth eludes us and that it is in the myriad of narratives that any approximation to 'what things really are' is to be found. Therefore, an interpretation of The Piano Tuner has inevitably to come to terms with classics, like Homer's Odyssey and, especially, Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, undoubtedly the text that is more often brought into the diegetic and conceptual world of this novel.
One of the best novels I've read in years.
Indeed, this feeling of incompleteness pervades the narrative. The stories he hears about Carroll offer nothing more than an incomplete portrait of the doctor. Further, the letters he sends home only concur to this feeling, as Edgar admits that he has "written so much, and yet still he has described so little of what he has done or seen".
Like the protagonist, the reader embarks on a journey through exotic places, scents, textures, languages and, ultimately, ways of perceiving reality only to discover that the truth eludes us and that it is in the myriad of narratives that any approximation to 'what things really are' is to be found. Therefore, an interpretation of The Piano Tuner has inevitably to come to terms with classics, like Homer's Odyssey and, especially, Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, undoubtedly the text that is more often brought into the diegetic and conceptual world of this novel.
One of the best novels I've read in years.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Slow
I really struggled with this book. It's not that it was a bad book by any means, it was well written, and enough happened for me not to give up but the going was very slow, I was... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lucybird
One to feast on
Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
In 1886, Edgar Drake, a piano tuner, is summoned from London to tune and repair a rare and beautiful instrument situated at an inaccessible... Read more
In 1886, Edgar Drake, a piano tuner, is summoned from London to tune and repair a rare and beautiful instrument situated at an inaccessible... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Allie
A fugue in a minor key
The Piano Tuner is beautifully written and a work of significant literary value, but if taken simply on face value as an enthralling tale, it is charming but lacks spark. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Dixie
Not magic realism, just unrealistic and slow moving.
I bought this book because I was intrigued by the title. A London piano tuner is engaged to go to Burma at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Hugh Claffey
Gorgeous but drops off
very very very very verrrrrrrry beautifully written, sensitive, intelligent and fascinating story of the gradual possession of a staid Victorian Englishman by the ancient Orient,... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Zangiku
Haunting
This is a fantastic and haunting story. Can be set against Ghosh's explorations of post-coloniality and adds a geographic dimension to how Myunmar emerged together with Malaysia,... Read more
Published 16 months ago by judith
Magnificent
Several people have described this book as a difficult read but I just don't understand why. I bought it a few months ago and have only just read it but as soon as I got started,... Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2009 by E. S. Williams
Quite awful
A quite awful novel, sloppily written and very badly researched. In 1886, a young man has to go from London to Burma, and engage there into a long river voyage to the deep jungle... Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2008 by Andres C. Salama
Audio CD version
I listened to the Audio CD, narrated by Graeme Malcom, which does not seem to be listed on Amzon.co.uk. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2008 by DubaiReader
Good or bad? I can't decide...
I can't quite decide if I liked this or not. It really depends on whether the plot of a book is important or whether it's the atmosphere and tone. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2008 by C. Ball
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