The Piano Tuner

This is Daniel Mason's first novel, and it's very good. It's about a fictional incident in the 19th century, where the War Office requests a man called Edgar Drake to travel into the jungles of Burma in order to tune the piano of an important British Officer. A thousand myths have grown up around this officer; Drake, an unassuming man who is happy in his small life, agrees to go.

There's good bits and bad bits. Sometimes he gets a bit overlyrical, where being plain would've done better; sometimes the story slows down. And sometimes you feel as though there's too much 21st century opinion accidently leaking in. Were people really so accepting of difference, a hundred and fifty years ago? I doubt it. However, it's a really well-written story in its subtleties. The important British Officer is nothing like his myths, and even Edgar Drake isn't the man he thought he was. Burma isn't a simple answer.

The writing style is unique, with a mix of embedded and traditional dialogue, and a good balance between description and action. There are enough incidents to show us the change in Edgar, and there's very little explanation of what people must be feeling. I thought the whole "Englishman falls for native woman" thing a really overused and unnecessary device, but at least it was only a small part of the novel. A good work.