The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason
The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason
2 Rating(s)
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The Piano Tuner

Author: Daniel Mason

Narrator: Richard Matthews

Unabridged: 10 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/13/2002


Synopsis

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.

About The Author

Daniel Mason was born and raised in Northern California. He studied biology at Harvard, and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. His first novel, The Piano Tuner, published in 2002, was a national bestseller and has since been published in 27 countries. His other works include The Night Swimmer and A Far Country. Mason has also published a short story, on the life of the artist Arthur Bispo de Rosario, in Harper's Magazine. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.Richard Matthews is a performer who has narrated many audiobooks, including A Short History of Nearly Everything1984, and The Count of Monte Cristo.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Colleen on January 09, 2012

This is one of those books that you begin hopefully and end up putting down again and again. It has so much going for it--wow, the author graduated from Harvard and traveled in Burma studying malaria and as of the print date he is still just a medical student! How accomplished! This must be really g......more

Goodreads review by robin on July 29, 2023

A Moving Novel In Need Of Fine Tuning Daniel Mason's novel The Piano Tuner (2002) is an intriguing work about the power of music, words, spirit, and the lure of the far away. The novel tells the story of Edgar Drake, a London piano tuner who, out of the blue, in 1886 is commissioned to tune an expens......more

Goodreads review by Terrie on August 09, 2024

"The Piano Tuner" by Daniel Mason was a disappointing read. It's not that I didn't enjoy the story line because I did - initially. I love historical fiction, it's my favorite genre! I was looking forward to this one from the description I read beforehand. When I began reading everything changed... Pi......more

Goodreads review by Robert on February 05, 2019

This novel was part adventure story (ala Joseph Conrad) part anti-imperialist and part anti-war, pro music as a path to peace. It deals with imperialist Britain and particularly in Burma in the late 1800s. A middle-aged piano tuner is given a most unusual request. A somewhat eccentric surgeon/milita......more

Goodreads review by Vonia on January 19, 2019

The readers of Daniel Mason’s The Piano Tuner generally fall into two categories: Those who love it with a passion, finding it perfect, and those who believed it to be unnecessarily long and uninteresting at times, but have to admit that Mason’s use of language had an undeniably immersive, transport......more


Quotes

“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