The Piano Teacher - Janice Y. K. Lee

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese, with terrible consequences for both of them, and for members of their fragile community who will betray each other in the darkest days of the war. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton lands in Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter's piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the colony's heady social life. She soon begins an affair!only to discover that her lover's enigmatic demeanour hides a devastating past. As the threads of this compelling and engrossing novel intertwine and converge, a landscape of impossible choices emerges -- between love and safety, courage and survival, the present and above all, the past.

I couldn't get into this book at all. I picked it up as it was recommended and because their was lots of advertising surrounding this book. However i don't think this book was for me.  It started off interesting with the piano teacher, but i found i could not sink into it like other books and found it hard to get into. Then the second part did not mention the teacher at all and went off a tangent about the war and Will. This added to my disappointment as i was not really interested in this section of the book. The piano teacher was only re-introduced in the conclusion of this book. By this point i had really lost the will power to read and was only reading it to finish it. I think because of this i was not interested in the story at all so did not really follow exactly what was going on.

I think Lee focused on the wrong bits of information in this story. The areas the readers wanted to find more about were only mentioned minimally in the story and the rest of the story was dragged out.  It was all about some crown treasure, but their was only mentioned briefly, and for such an important item it was hardly mentioned nor was it really explained what it was they all risked their lives for.

Overall i did not enjoy this novel. I found it hard to get into. Frustrating for the plot lines, and just not interesting enough. Im sure if you were more interested in the old fashioned writing and the war stories this may have been more of an interesting novel. But this book wasn't for me and i Just could not get into it at all.