The Piano Tuner

by Chiang-Sheng Kuo Narrated by Fernando Chien

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

June 2023 - AudioFile

This Taiwanese novella is like a musical rhapsody celebrating the wonders of the piano. Fernando Chien, an actor born in Taiwan and well known for his action roles, narrates. The story is told by a former musical prodigy who rejected the concert stage to restore ailing pianos to musical health. Chien's voice is energetic, and his presentation is straightforward and upbeat. The mood is soft and dreamy, and the nonlinear plot speaks of lost loves, secrets, sorrows, and music forever unheard. Especially memorable is a scene in a warehouse where used pianos are to be cannibalized for parts. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178084090
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	02/14/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos