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The Piano Maker
The Piano Maker | Kurt Palka
7 posts | 9 read | 14 to read
The 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.
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Ehbooklover
The Piano Maker | Kurt Palka
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Pickpick

This title is set in one of my favourite places (Nova Scotia) and I loved that when the story alternated between past and present it felt completely seamless. I also really liked that the female protagonist was so complex, strong, and believable. A quick read that I really enjoyed!

mhillis This sounds interesting!! 7y
Jaimelire This sounds really good. I have to try it. I love books set in Canada. (edited) 4y
12 likes2 comments
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readtheworld
The Piano Maker | Kurt Palka
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Pickpick

Loved this historical novel set in Nova Scotia! Engrossing and beautifully written, The Piano Maker follows Helene Giroux, a French woman who arrives in the small coastal town of Saint Homais with a dark secret.

91 likes8 stack adds
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Sherry
The Piano Maker | Kurt Palka
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Portrayal of a strong gentle woman who survived WWI and more. This book made me wish I had some musical talent.

3 likes1 stack add
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Sherry
The Piano Maker | Kurt Palka
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Pickpick

An interesting well written book. It begins in 1933 with the main character arriving in a small town in Nova Scotia. We know from the beginning that there is something in her past that she doesn't want people to know. The Cathedral in town has a piano that was made by her family business in France before WWI. The story goes back and forth from the time before WWI and during the war to 1933 without any distraction from the story.