The Piano Teacher - Softcover

Lee, Janice Y. K.

3.36

22,755 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007286376 ISBN 13: 9780007286379

Publisher: William Collins, 2009

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Ambitious, exotic, and a classic book club read, 'The Piano Teacher' is a combination of 'Tenko' meets 'The Remains of the Day'.

Sometimes the end of a love affair is only the beginning...

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese, with terrible consequences for both of them, and for members of their fragile community who will betray each other in the darkest days of the war.

Ten years later, Claire Pendleton lands in Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter's piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the colony's heady social life. She soon begins an affair...only to discover that her lover's enigmatic demeanour hides a devastating past.

As the threads of this compelling and engrossing novel intertwine and converge, a landscape of impossible choices emerges – between love and safety, courage and survival, the present and above all, the past.

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Review:

''This is a rare and exquisite story. It does exactly what a great novel should do - transports you out of time, out of place, into a world you can feel on your very skin' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of 'Eat, Pray, Love'

'This season's Atonement...a first-class steamer ticket to a disappearing Hong Kong.' Elle Magazine

'This cinematic tale of two love affairs in mid-century Hong Kong shows colonial pretensions tainted by wartime truths...Lee unfolds each story, and flits between them, with the brisk grace and discretion of the society she describes.' New Yorker

'Laced with intrigue... Readers will be enthralled by Lee's depiction of Will's relationships with his two lovers...and the unsparing way Lee unravels them.' New York Times

'War. Love. Betrayal. The harsh lessons of history. These are big subjects for any veteran writer, and yet, in her first novel, Janice Y.K. Lee confronts them admirably.' Washington Post

'Evocative, poignant and skilfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary.' Chicago Tribune

'War, love, betrayal-an exquisite fugue of a first novel...intensely readable.' O (Oprah Magazine)

'A heartfelt debut [that] illuminates World War II's lesser-known chapters.' Vogue

'One of the most insightful, elegant and atmospheric novels I've read in a long time. Janice Lee is nothing short of brilliant and her novel is impossible to put down.' Gary Shteyngart

'Rarely does one encounter a debut work as beguiling and assured as Janice Lee's The Piano Teacher. Rich with intrigue, romance, and betrayal, this wonderfully written, utterly captivating novel dazzles with its sharp-eyed renderings of beau monde Hong Kong as it is plunged into the crucible of war. With its fascinating interplay of East and West and wide cast of effervescent characters, especially the singularly haunting Trudy Liang, this is a truly transporting - and indeed irresistible - work of fiction.' Chang-rae Lee, author of 'Aloft'

Review:

'[An] impressive debut, which explores the moral ambiguities of war, culture, race and romantic love.'

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