Book info

• Title The Piano Tuner
• Author Daniel Mason
• Year 2002
• Genre Historical

One misty London afternoon in 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives an unusual request from the War Office: he must leave his quiet life and travel to the jungles of Burma to repair a rare grand piano owned by an enigmatic army surgeon. So begins an extraordinary journey across Europe, the Red Sea, India and onwards, accompanied by an enchanting yet elusive woman. Edgar is at first captivated, then unnerved, as he begins to question the true motive behind his summons and whether he will return home unchanged to the wife who awaits him...

Thoughts

Edgar Drake is a piano tuner from London in 1886 and he is summoned by the army to cross hundreds of miles over sea and land to Burma, to tune a piano belonging to an important army doctor. Along the way he sees beauty and terror but learns a lot and becomes a changed man.

Edgar starts out as a timid piano tuner who has a small existence in London, but by the end of the novel he is passionate about things and has wild emotions and dreams he never knew existed.

It’s beautiful and descriptive, sucking you into the experiences of Burma with a passionate love of the place. I really only picked this up for the piano in the title but I ended up really enjoying this book.

Rating: 4 / 5