The Piano Shop On The Left Bank

Description

By the 19th century pianos everywhere: they shrank in the heat of the colonies, swayed on steamships and sang in the drawing room of every genteel home. Some of these old pianos have become treasured family heirlooms, some just firewood. But others have led a more itinerant life, occasionally finding their way to a secret, glass-roofed workshop in Paris where they are lovingly restored by a piano repairer with a passion for his job. When T.E. Carhart came upon Luc and his atelier, his life changed. As he explored the Eldorado of pianos in Luc's back room, absorbed Luc's wisdom on life and music and finally found the baby grand of his dreams, he rediscovered his deep love for this most magical of instruments. In this atmospheric book, full of Parisian life, the story of a musical friendship and a mutual obsession is intertwined with reflections on how pianos work, their history and the people who care for them, from the most amateur pianist to the tuners and craftsmen who make the mechanism sing.

T. E. Carhart is an American who lives in Paris. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is his debut novel. His second book, Across the Endless River, was published in 2009.

"Quirky and tender...beguiling" -- Rose Tremain Sunday Telegraph "A love affair with the piano... A minor classic" Times Literary Supplement "Captivating...full of knowledge...suffused with Parisian sensations...he can choose words that make us feel and hear the instruments he plays...when you close it you feel you have been on holiday" Sunday Times "Charming...a cool, autumnal breeze of a book...written out of love" Guardian