The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I found this novel to be very intriguing and beautifully written. It moves slow at first, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.



This novel takes place in two time periods. WWII and Post-WWII. Claire moves to Hong Kong with her husband in 1953 and finds a job for herself as a piano teacher for a very priveleged chinese family. She meets and finds herself in a love affair with Will Truesdale who happens to be a driver for this family. More involved she become's with Will, the more his past starts to resurface. His love affair with a Hong Kong socialite Trudy Liang, his time in a POW camp, the lies and things that were done to befriends the Japanese, who were the enemy, just to get ahead and survive. Eventually Claire finds herself mor involved than she wanted. She finds how past secrets not only ruin lives of those from the past but also of those of the present.



The more that the past and secrecy unraveled itself, the more interesting the book became. It was interesting to see how some would sell all that they had as well as their souls, so to speak just to survive war. As well as sell out your own governement and play whichever side best suited the need of the characteres.



Claire was written beautifully as someone who who could act innocent which helped other characfters to open up to her.


View all my reviews.