The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander
One of the most painful aspects of my mother’s death two years ago was disposing of her Baldwin light oak spinet piano, purchased for me over 50 years ago when my parents saw potential. I was willing to give it away to a good home. I ran ads, contacted local dealers, called every music school, public school, even tried to convince her neighbors they had perfect space in their small apartment when they really didn’t. Having run out of options, I instructed the pick-up company to destroy it — shatter it into pieces and throw it away. Well into The Weight of a Piano (Knopf), author Chris Cander writes of the German Blüthner piano that is the centerpiece of her novel, “The Blüthner carried the memory of every note it had ever created. Every chord, every scale. It held on to the emotion of every prelude and sonata. It had absorbed all the grief and longing and joy and exultation expressed through its action, the impression of every touch and every tear shed at its keyboard.”Want more BookTrib? Sign up NOW for news and giveaways!