The Piano Teacher, Janice Y. K. Lee
The Piano Teacher, Janice Y. K. Lee
1 Rating(s)
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The Piano Teacher

Author: Janice Y. K. Lee

Narrator: Orlagh Cassidy

Unabridged: 10 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 01/13/2009

Synopsis

"A rare and exquisite story . . . Transports you out of time, out of place, into a world you can feel on your very skin." —Elizabeth Gilbert

The New York Times bestseller 

Janice Y.K. Lee's latest novel, The Expatriates, is now available from Penguin

In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, Janice Y.K. Lee's debut novel is a tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong. In 1942, Englishman Will Truesdale falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong to work as a piano teacher and also begins a fateful affair. As the threads of this spellbinding novel intertwine, impossible choices emerge-between love and safety, courage and survival, the present, and above all, the past.

About The Author

Janice Y. K. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong. A former editor at Elle, she lives in New York with her husband and four children.Orlagh Cassidy is an American actress of stage, television, and film. She is also an accomplished narrator whose credits include The Ambassador’s Wife by Jennifer Steil, City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte, and The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Ellen on 2012-03-24 10:47:51

Im rounding up, since I cannot give halfstars.The historical context of this book intrigued me, and I found the authors ability to create an immersive setting very strong. However, I felt more immersed in the world of this book than I did in the story being told. The plot never consistently gripped me the way the setting did.I enjoyed, but didnt love, the book. It read like a first draft on the verge of unrealized potential for something more than a diversion.

Goodreads review by Jim on September 17, 2023

We are taken to a different place and time: the almost-forgotten Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in World War II which took place eight hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For the high-flying British citizens who lived a life of carefree excess in Hong Kong – drinks and parties at the British cl......more

Goodreads review by Elaine on January 07, 2009

Two days ago I thought my review of this book would be quite different than it is. Two days ago I was on page 113 of this book and I was getting frustrated with the vapid characters who were either spending all their time acting the part of the privileged upper class English ex-pats in Hong Kong or......more

Goodreads review by Britney on December 05, 2008

I've found that it's easy to find World War II literature that focuses on the Holocaust or on the American experience. It's harder to find books that explore the non-Western experience. The Piano Teacher explores how lives in Hong Kong in the 1950s was affected by the Japanese invasion of the Briti......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on November 14, 2015

Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog! I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as I had hoped. The story was riveting; however, the characters were tremendously shallow, hard to understand, and extremely hard to like. The Storyline The story switches points of view between 1953 and 1942 when World......more

Goodreads review by Patricia on July 27, 2018

Another book that I absolutely loved and could not quit reading. A WWII story but this one was told about Japanese/Chinese which is not what we usually read about. A very mixed up love story about people who were very confused about who they were but by the end of the book seemed to have found thems......more

Quotes

"Riveting . . . This season's Atonement."
—Elle
 
"Laced with intrigue."
—The New York Times Book Review, “Editor’s Choice”
 
"Evocative, poignant, and skillfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary. . . . If we measure the skill of a fiction writer by her ability to create characters and atmosphere so effortlessly real, so alive on the page, that the reader feels a sense of participatory anxiety—as if the act of reading gives one the power to somehow influence the outcome of purely imaginary events—then Lee should be counted among the very best in recent memory."
—Chicago Tribune
 
"A shattering, immensely satisfying debut."
—People (4 stars)
 
"War, love, betrayal—an exquisite fugue of a first novel . . . intensely readable."
—O, The Oprah Magazine
 
"Lee unfolds the story with the brisk grace and discretion of the society she describes."
—The New Yorker
 
"Sensual and gripping."
—Good Housekeeping
 
“Janice Lee delivers a standout debut.”
­—The Boston Globe
 
"The novel is sustained by elegant prose and a terrific sense of place. As Graham Greene evoked Vietnam in The Quiet American, Lee, born and raised in Hong Kong long after the war, captures the city as it was during World War II, its glittering veneer barely masking the panic and corruption beneath."
—The Miami Herald
 
“A compelling portrait of the devastating choices people make in order to survive.”
—TimeOut New York
 
"Lee tells two engrossing love stories. . . . Just hide your phone before cracking this one open—or risk calling your ex."
—Marie Claire
 
"Lee delivers a standout debut [with] layers of intrigue and more than a few unexpected twists."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
"A lush examination of East-West relations."
—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Lee has created the sort of interesting, complex characters, especially in Trudy, that drive a rich and intimate look at what happens to people under extraordinary circumstances.”
—Booklist
 
"A rare and exquisite story. It does exactly what a great novel should do—transports you out of time, out of place, into a world you can feel in your very own skin."
—Elizabeth Gilbert
 
"One of the most insightful, elegant, and atmospheric novels I’ve read in a long time. Janice Lee is nothing short of brilliant and her novel is impossible to put down."
—Gary Shteyngart
 
"Rarely does one encounter a debut work as beguiling and assured as Janice Lee’s The Piano Teacher. Rich with intrigue, romance, and betrayal, this wonderfully written, utterly captivating novel dazzles with its sharp-eyed renderings of beau monde Hong Kong as it is plunged into the crucible of war. With its fascinating interplay of East and West and wide cast of effervescent characters . . . this is a truly transporting—and indeed irresistible—work of fiction."
—Chang-Rae Lee
 
“Compelling . . . A persuasive re-creation of a time and place.”
—Penelope Lively

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