A historical novel set in the late 19th Century, with the British Empire at its zenith. A London piano tuner, Edgar Drake, is commissioned by the War Office to undertake a 3-month journey to the jungles of Burma. His task, a matter of importance to the Crown, is to tune a rare Erard grand piano. Thus pressured, his curiosity piqued, Drake accepts the job, leaving Katherine, his wife of eighteen years of involuntarily childless marriage, to mind the shop.

The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, a maverick, Lawrence-like figure who has created his own legend as a leader capable of winning the loyalty and trust of local chiefs in the British cause. At the same time, the British authorities distrust Carroll, fearing that he is working to his own obscure agenda, not theirs.

Carroll is clearly a music lover, so it's both understandable and puzzling that he should want to risk the ruin of a precious antique piano in the steamy tropical heat of Burma. His explanation that music wins the hearts of the Shan tribal leaders is not wholly convincing. But by demanding such a piano, enormously expensive and difficult to transport, he tests his indispensability to the War Office. They humour his whim, and do so again with the piano tuner.

After an arduous journey, in which he conducts a steady monologue in correspondence with Katherine, Drake finally reaches Carroll's base at Mae Lwin (sounds Welsh!) in the Shan highlands. Here he successfully tunes the piano and plays it, at Carroll's insistence, for the regional warlords. During this time Drake also faces sexual temptation with Khin Myo, Carroll's assistant. She seems attracted to Drake but also shows an enigmatic intimacy with Carroll.

No spoilers here, not least because the dénouement is in any case unsatisfying. Events turn out to be not quite what they seemed, for reasons never elucidated. Mason suggests this is the nature of history - the tale is always told by the victor - make up your own mind what really happened. This approach is fine with presentation of real historical material, but with fiction this "you decide" approach is a cop-out. The writer is omnipotent, and can shape the truth any way he pleases - just make it convincing.

All the same, I enjoyed this book enormously for its meticulously researched period detail. I have long been fascinated by the enigma of Burma as 'one that got away', one of the few former British Empire countries that did not maintain some kind of relationship with Britain after independence. Moreover, with its brutal military regime, Burma has long shut itself off from the world. For me it still has the romantic allure of distance not shared by a package tour to Thailand.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

At monthly meetup.

Received at the Cardiff meet up from kindly Cardiff crossers who know that I am going to set this travelling so that I can take some other stuff out of the ABC 2 book box

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Into the ABC2 book box...

This has been on my to-be-read pile through several house moves. I've started it several times over the years, but have only recently managed to finish it. For the most part, the writing is lovely, the research is impressive (or seems that way, given my lack of knowledge about Burma in the 1886). However, what turned me off previously was the 'information dumps' of historical facts: about the military situation, about the piano, etc. For me, these changes of style didn't add anything to the book, and I wished the information (or perhaps slightly less of it) could've been incorporated into the narrative a little more.

Anyway, I'll be releasing this book before our next house move - and hopefully it'll make it's way to another reader...