Among the current best-selling novels is Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher. Elle Magazine called it ‘This seasons Atonement‘ - no small accolade.

As we meet the principal characters, we are at first unable to see the links between Will Truesdale, English driver employed by the Hong Kong Chen family, the piano teacher, Claire Pendleton, that they employ to give private lessons to their daughter Locket, and Trudy Liang, a Eurasian beauty.

The story moves back and forth between 1952 and 1941 and links slowly emerge. We are horrified when, with the Hong Kong community, we experience the Japanese occupation and all the horrors it brought with it. Three key figures come into focus.

Vital information about the crown collection is known by only three people in the colony and Otsubo, the occupying Japanese general, is determined to acquire it. Gruesome torture, violent deaths and great wealth are the results of the intrigue.

However, it is Claire Pendleton, the piano teacher, who is a principal player in the final scene of the drama, ten years after the intrigue. Surprising revelations are in store for the reader.

The story is superbly crafted with convincing recreation of wartime and post-war Hong Kong.

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