The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

The only book I know of that features a piano tuner as the protagonist. It's 1886, and an eccentric British Army surgeon in Burma needs his piano turned. The surgeon is so important to the British Army efforts to colonize Burma that Edgar Drake, a piano tuner in London, is recruited to journey to Burma and tune and repair the surgeon's Erard grand piano.

The novel owes much to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Is the surgeon deep in the jungle of Burma merely an influential doctor, or has he gone native? Is he working in the best interest of the British Empire, or does he have other plans? And why is a piano so important? Drake's journey is eye-opening as he encounters a culture that he never imagined could exist. He falls under the spell of Burma as well as the eccentric surgeon who has brought him to tune his piano. Of course things get out of hand - Drake has to repair damage to the piano from a bullet.

The writing is good, although at times the author abandons traditional dialogue punctuation in favor of a style that is confusing at best - he would have been well-advised to stick to traditional punctuation at all times.

Here is the climatic moment when Drake finally arrives at the location of the piano:

Edgar climbed out of the boat.
The man looked at him without speaking. The piano tuner's clothes were still soaked with mud, his hair matted against his forehead. He could feel the dried mud on his face crack as he smiled. There was a long silence and then he slowly raised his hand.
He had thought about this moment for weeks, and about what he would say. The moment called for words fit for History, to be remembered and recorded once the Shan States were finally won and the Empire secured.
"I am Edgar Drake," he said. "I am here to repair a piano."

Yes, it seems a little overblown and melodramatic when quoted. I admit that I laughed when I read that passage. The plot is, for the most part, predictable. The ending (which I will not reveal) may be disappointing to some.

And how is the depiction of the actual piano tuning? Spotty. I have had some experience in this area, in the moving, tuning, and repair of pianos. It seems that the Erard grand was transported across Burma without removing the legs - not likely. The piano tuner is called on to perform, and is able to play multiple preludes and fugues from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier without much, if any, preparation. I find that hard to believe for even a professional pianist. The descriptions of the actual tuning of the piano are also not technically accurate, at least not consistent with modern practice. But this is fiction, and we should give the author, whose training is in medicine, the benefit of the doubt.

Overall I give it two and a half stars out of five. It's a good effort, and where else can you read a book where a piano tuner is the principal character?

Link to Amazon: The Piano Tuner: A Novel