The Piano Teacher

I really enjoyed Janice Lee's debut novel The Piano Teacher until the end. It tells the story of Claire, a young piano teacher from England who has just moved to Hong Kong with her husband in 1953. The Other part of the story is told from voices of expats living there ten years earlier, through the war years.

One in particular, Will Truesdale, ties the story together. In 1942 he is in love with a beautiful Eurasian socialite, Trudy Liang. Ten years later, broken by events during the war, he is having an affair with Claire.

I was transported to Hong Kong during the 40's and 50's, and the city itself became one of the main characters of the story. Lee had me hooked for most of the novel, but I felt truly disappointed by the end when so many of the characters were just left hanging, or quickly tied up.

Although it is titled The Piano Teacher, it doesn't really seem to be Claire's story, although whose it is is unclear. It's a pity, it really could have been a very good book.