Daniel Mason

It is 1886 and piano tuner Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the War Office - he must leave his wife, and his life in London, to travel to Burma to tune a rare Erard grand piano. The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, an enigmatic British officer whose unorthodox methods are attracting suspicion.

The Piano Tuner

Daniel Philippe Mason

In 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake leaves London for the jungles of Burma, where he has been asked to repair a grand piano belonging to a British army officer who uses the piano and music to help keep the peace among warring local Burmese princes.

 more. Or maybe I wouldn’t have finished it at all. It was compelling in places. It was well-written throughout. It took a long time to get to a climax that left me saying, “That’s it? That’s what we’ve been building to all this time?” It's reminiscent of 

, but without the weight. Its conclusion is so thin that all the work you did getting there doesn’t feel worth it. Ultimately, this was the sad story of a middle-aged guy having a midlife crisis, craving a younger sexual partner, looking for some sort of masculine meaning, lost, afraid, drawn into hero worship of a controlling father figure. It just bummed me out. 

But. To be fair. I couldn’t help comparing it to 

, which I still adore. I'll probably read more of Mason's work, but I'll need a break.

Matthew Wright

Maybe if I didn’t know and love North Woods so much, I would have enjoyed The Piano Tuner more. Or maybe I wouldn’t have finished it at all. It was compelling in places. It was well-written throughout. It took a long time to get to a climax that left me saying, “That’s it? That’s what we’ve been building to all this time?” It's reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia and Heart of Darkness, but without the weight. Its conclusion is so thin that all the work you did getting there doesn’t feel worth it. Ultimately, this was the sad story of a middle-aged guy having a midlife crisis, craving a younger sexual partner, looking for some sort of masculine meaning, lost, afraid, drawn into hero worship of a controlling father figure. It just bummed me out. 

But. To be fair. I couldn’t help comparing it to North Woods, which I still adore. I'll probably read more of Mason's work, but I'll need a break.

Ellie Younger

Sarah Sammis

Mason clearly did a lot of research but his decision to mimic Heart of Darkness had seriously clouded my enjoyment of this book. I HATE passionately Heart of Darkness. While I can follow Mason's story far better than Conrad's, I honestly don't give a damn about the mystery behind the owner of the piano. I'm 2/3 of the way through this book and I'm at the point of wanting to throw it across the room.

The Piano Tuner

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