The Piano Tuner, ChiangSheng Kuo
The Piano Tuner, ChiangSheng Kuo
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The Piano Tuner

Author: Chiang-Sheng Kuo, Howard Goldblatt, Sylvia Li-chun Lin

Narrator: Fernando Chien

Unabridged: 2 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/14/2023

Synopsis

A widower grieving for his young wife. A piano tuner concealing a lifetime of secrets. An out-of-tune Steinway piano. A journey of self-discovery across time and continents, from a dark apartment in Taipei’s red-light district to snow-clad New York. At the heart of the story is the nameless narrator, the piano tuner. In his forties, he is balding and ugly, a loser by any standard. But he was once a musical prodigy. What betrayal and what heartbreak made him walk away from greatness? Long hailed in Taiwan as a “writer’s writer,” Chiang-Sheng Kuo delivers a stunningly powerful, compact novel in The Piano Tuner. It’s a book of sounds: both of music and of the heart, from Rachmaninoff to Schubert, from Glenn Gould to Sviatoslav Richter, from untapped potential to unrequited love. With a cadence and precision that bring to mind Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes, and Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country, this short novel may be a portrait of the artist as a “failure,” but it also describes a pursuit of the ultimate beauty in music and in love.

About Chiang-Sheng Kuo

Chiang-Sheng Kuo (郭強生) is one of the most exciting storytellers and prose stylists in Taiwanese literature today. He has written a number of novels, essay collections, and plays, of which The Piano Tuner is the first to be published in English. A resident of Taipei, he earned a PhD in drama from New York University and teaches in the Department of Language and Creative Writing at National Taipei University of Education.

About Howard Goldblatt

Howard Goldblatt is a translator of Chinese fiction from China and Taiwan, including works by Chiang-Sheng Kuo, Liu Zhenyun, and Nobel Prize winner Mo Ya. A resident of Layette, Colorado, he taught Chinese literature and culture for more than a quarter of a century.

About Sylvia Li-chun Lin

Sylvia Li-chun Lin is a full-time translator and writer. A former teacher and scholar of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture, she lives in Lafayette, Colorado.

About Fernando Chien

Fernando Chien is an experienced audiobook narrator, actor, writer, and director. A magician in training, he has a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rosh ~on extended semihiatus~ on January 18, 2023

In a Nutshell:Good in bits and pieces, but as a whole, it didn’t work much for me. The writing is a treat to the senses, but the nonlinear flow and abstract hops across people and timeframes made this a tricky read. Story Synopsis: Lin San is an old widower mourning the death of his young wife Emily......more

Goodreads review by Terrie on August 11, 2023

The Piano Tuner by Chiang-sheng Kuo is a Short Read/Listen! The unnamed piano tuner is also the narrator of this story. By his own admission, he's in his 40's, balding, and unattractive. As a child he was a musical prodigy who became a piano teacher in his adulthood. He speaks at length about his cho......more

Goodreads review by Bkwmlee on January 29, 2023

I don’t remember how this book got onto my radar, as I’m not as familiar with Taiwanese literature as I am with Hong Kong literature, but seeing that this was a short novella, I decided to pick it up last minute as a way to round out my January reads. Overall, this was a good story, but a bit confus......more

Goodreads review by Michał on March 29, 2024

Jak do filmów Won Kar-Wai'a, potrzeba tu pewnego rodzaju wrażliwości. Może to być nieznośne, ale może też ujmować. Mnie akurat ujmuje.......more

Goodreads review by spillingthematcha on May 24, 2024

Trudno ocenić mi tę książkę, ponieważ nie wywołała we mnie żadnych emocji. Trochę zmarnowany potencjał, więc jak dla mnie duże rozczarowanie.......more

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