The Piano Tuner

A Novel

De: Daniel Mason

Narrado por: Richard Matthews

An extraordinary first novel that tells the story of a British piano tuner sent deep into Burma in the nineteenth century.

In October 1886, Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the British War Office: he must leave his wife and his quiet life in London to travel to the jungles of Burma, where a rare Erard grand piano is in need of repair. The piano belongs to an army surgeon-major whose unorthodox peacemaking methods—poetry, medicine, and now music—have brought a tentative quiet to the southern Shan States but have elicited questions from his superiors.

On his journey through Europe, the Red Sea, India, and into Burma, Edgar meets soldiers, mystics, bandits, and tale-spinners, as well as an enchanting woman as elusive as the surgeon-major. And at the doctor’s fort on a remote Burmese river, Edgar encounters a world more mysterious and dangerous than he ever could have imagined.

Sensuous, lyrical, rich with passion and adventure, this is a hypnotic tale of myth, romance, and self-discovery: an unforgettable novel.©2002 Daniel Mason; (P)2002 Books on Tape, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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

“An ambitious, adventuresome, highly unusual first novel that offers pleasures too rarely encountered in contemporary American literary fiction. . . . [Mason is] a gifted, original and courageous writer.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Luminous. . . . Mason’s writing achieves that kind of reverie in which every vision, tone, flavor and sensation is magnified.” —Los Angeles Times

“Intoxicating, full of sights to see, histories to learn, stories to entertain.” —USA Today

“Remarkable. . . . A profound adventure story.” –The New Yorker

“Inspired. . . . The Piano Tuner is a brilliant debut.” –Miami Herald

“Reminded me of books I read by flashlight, under the covers, when I was young.” –USA Today

“Mason’s writing achieves that kind of reverie in which every vision, tone, flavor and sensation is magnified.” –LA Times

“Excellent. . . . [Mason’s] powerful prose style and his ability to embrace history, politics, nature and medicine . . . [is] astonishing.” –The New York Times Book Review

“The Piano Tuner is a haunting, passionate story of empire and individualism. . . . [Mason is] a gifted writer.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“This wondrous work of fiction . . . artfully weaves psychology, politics, medicine and music theory into a polyphonic composition. . . . A virtuoso performance.” –Newsday

“[A] very fine first novel. . . . Its author is rich in talent and promise.” –Philadelphia Inquirer

“Daniel Mason’s ambitious, lyrical The Piano Tuner . . . [possesses] genuine moments of ominous beauty. . . . Readers . . . should be intrigued by the mix of historical detail, lush settings, and equally lush language.” –San Jose Mercury News

“A smart, entertaining adventure.” –Christian Science Monitor

“An intense, shimmering dream of a story.” –Grand Rapids Press

“Mason has improvised a virtuoso tale . . . a complex and subtly imagined adventure.” –Guardian Unlimited

Can't forget this one - sticks with you

I joined Audible in 2007. Piano Tuner was among the first books I heard. Today, 2012, I still think about this book. I consider it one of the best, most unique stories I've heard. The characters are well developed. The history and the fate of the piano turner are fascinating. I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The story does start slow. The detail seems a little thick because you don't know the story is going, but then it comes together. And in the end, in some ineffable way, it doesn't leave you. I honestly don't know why I enjoyed this book so much. But five years later, I am still thinking about this book.

An astounding and educational story

While I prefer stories that aren’t necessarily bittersweet, this was a mystical and beautiful story. The history is altogether new to me and the exposure was an unexpected gift. The writing is extraordinary and the descriptions put me in the time and place. Edgar Drake is an unforgettable character, respectably settled, while open to new and different ways of and seeing and experiencing.

Unique

Well read interesting story, departure from usual genre; but written in classic style. Educational but not pedantic. Seemed to end too quickly for me tied loose ends together after a long journey.

Love being transported!

Most interesting to me where the description of the area. I was transported into a place foreign to me. I learned a great deal about music, local history of a far away land.

Superb performance, interesting setting, very slow

I picked this book based on my fascination with British colonialism during the 19th century and the narrator's fantastic work with Bill Bryson's book "A Brief History of Everything". The narrator's range of vocal characters is unmatched and he even manages to do female vocals well enough. The setting is richly described in detail. Unfortunately, the story is fairly slow up until the 2nd to last chapter and the payoff is left missing. For those reasons, I gave it a 3 star review

The absolute best in reading, a true classic!

I firmly believe that this young author's very first novel is, amazingly, one of the finest books that I have read in my fifty odd years of reading. It is already a best seller, and I am sure that,.. two hundred years hense, it will have become one of the first true classic works of our twenty-first century!
Be sure to read this unabridged rendering, as there is just too much to miss of this enchanting story!
If you are a musican, historian, beggerman, ...anything..leap into the wonderous debths of this majestic work!

kinda of slow and not credible

I did not have any problem with the narrator, He seemed just fine to me.

As for the book itself, perhaps I just do not fully get the point. There does seem to be a lot of symbolism floating around. There is some good writing, and the writer is pretty good at describing scenes and the like, but there is too much discussion of landscape and the like. Also, sometimes there seems to be just too many words. It seemed sort of original in sections, although very much like an inverse Heart of Darkness. At other times it seemed like a shifting mix of adventure story, existential tome, and magical realism.

Bottomline, it was worth reading, but I sure do not think it is a great novel. For those that think it is a great book, what exactly is the great teaching here? And what is the ending supposed to mean, or teach us or whatever? Other than that the author had to wrap it up somehow.

A delicacy

Learning about the "man of the one story" made my month. This is a special book. Graphically granular. Amazingly refreshing and soothing for a world grappling with a pandemic.

A Wealth of Wonder

This was.a book for listening. A strange country, a turbulent time in its history and the call of a piano to a man so out of.place and time - all made more believable by a reader who made us believe he was there.

Good Story, Bad Ending

This story was absolutely fascinating to me. The information on Britain's presence in India, the art of piano tuning, and all the other details the author painstakingly included made it a learning experience as well as entertainment. The narrator did an excellent job telling the story.

But as it was coming to a conclusion, I became nervous about how it was going to end. Few clues were given. When I did finish it, I understood why. A sad reality of writers is the difficulty of tying it all up in the end. Mr. Mason did not do this at all. It was an awful ending and left me frustrated. Why would this moral, innocent, and straight forward man do this? It did not fit.