The Piano Tuner

Hailed for winning every major literary award in Taiwan, Chiang-Sheng Kuo's global bestseller The Piano Tuner arrives in the U.S., lyrically translated by the revered duo Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin. The eponymous piano tuner remains unnamed until nearly the book's end. That sense of unknowing--except for the shortest glimpses of clarity--permeates Kuo's enigmatic narrative.

The piano tuner was once a prodigy, but his disdainful father demanded a military career for his sons. A kind teacher, however, recognized his genius and provided him free lessons and connections. At 17, the teacher introduced him to a former student, now an international star, who suggested a public duo that never happened. Decades pass, and the prodigy has traded the uncertainty of performing for the reliable need for tuning. He returns regularly to a music studio run by violinist Emily. After Emily unexpectedly dies of cancer, her husband, Lin, must decide the fate of all the studio's pianos. He approaches the tuner with a possible business venture. The tuner, however, knows too much--about Emily, her students, even her marriage.

"I have enough self-awareness to know that I'm not the protagonist," the tuner ironically insists. And yet his pivotal observations--secrets he hoards about clandestine lovers, estranged relationships and damaged instruments--ensure he is the story's linchpin. Kuo smoothly underscores the tuner's loneliness and longing with references to the troubled lives of renowned musicians, including Franz Schubert (dead at 31), Glenn Gould (who eschewed the elite) and Sviatoslav Richter (failing eyesight). Kuo writes with sharp erudition--about music, history, instruments, geography--creating a multivocal repertoire spotlighting displaced love and unfulfilled opportunity. --Terry Hong, BookDragon

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