The Piano MakerThe suspenseful, emotionally resonant, and utterly compelling story of what brings an enigmatic French woman to a small Canadian town in the 1930s, a woman who has found depths of strength in dark times and comes to discover sanctuary at last. For readers of The Imposter Bride, The Cellist of Sarajevo, Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, and The Red Violin. Helene Giroux arrives alone in St. Homais on a winter day. She wears good city clothes and drives an elegant car, and everything she owns is in a small trunk in the back seat. In the local church she finds a fine old piano, a Molnar, and she knows just how fine it is, for her family had manufactured these pianos before the Great War. Then her mother's death and war forces her to abandon her former life. The story moves back and forth in time as Helene, settling into a simple life, playing the piano for church choir, recalls the extraordinary events that brought her to this place. They include the early loss of her soldier husband and the reappearance of an old suitor who rescues her and her daughter, when she is most desperate; the journeys that very few women of her time could even imagine, into the forests of Indochina in search of ancient treasures and finally, and fatefully, to the Canadian north. When the town policeman confronts her, past and present suddenly converge and she must face an episode that she had thought had been left behind forever. |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 11 |
Section 3 | 23 |
Section 4 | 29 |
Section 5 | 37 |
Section 6 | 43 |
Section 7 | 54 |
Section 8 | 65 |
Section 16 | 149 |
Section 17 | 158 |
Section 18 | 164 |
Section 19 | 173 |
Section 20 | 179 |
Section 21 | 189 |
Section 22 | 205 |
Section 23 | 210 |
Section 9 | 71 |
Section 10 | 84 |
Section 11 | 89 |
Section 12 | 94 |
Section 13 | 111 |
Section 14 | 134 |
Section 15 | 142 |
Section 24 | 221 |
Section 25 | 233 |
Section 26 | 241 |
Section 27 | 251 |
Section 28 | 266 |
Section 29 | 277 |
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Common terms and phrases
Annapolis Valley asked assistant Crown Bösendorfer brought Cabayé called Canada chair choir church Claire Claire's clerk closed coat dark David Chandler desk dogs door Edmonton eyes face factory Father William floor Fougère French French Shore French-Canadian Für Elise Giroux Haiphong hair hands head hear heard Helen Hélène Honour Huron Carol judge Juliette jury kitchen later leather light listened looked loved ma'am Madame Marie-Tatin matron Merrifield Mi'kmaq Mildred Molnar Monsieur Montmagny Montreal moose morning Morning Has Broken Morris Mother moved museum Nathan Homewood never night nodded piano Pierre played Quormby Saint Catherine Street Saint Homais sergeant shoes shook side skull sled smiled snow someone Spanish flu stood stopped talk Tancock tell tent Thank there's thing told took trap turned wait walked watched window wood wooden