The Weight of a Piano

Starred review from November 5, 2018
In her elegiac and evocative novel, Cander (Whisper Hollow) explores the legacy of loss, the intersections of art and music, and what happens when physical objects assume outsized symbolism. As a young girl in the Soviet Union in 1962, Katya admires her neighbor’s Blüthner piano; when he leaves it to her after his death, Katya pursues her musical passions and becomes obsessed with maintaining possession of the piano, even when given the opportunity to flee as a dissident. In California in 2012, Clara is a 26-year-old auto mechanic. Her boyfriend has just ended their relationship and demanded that she move out—along with the Blüthner that is her only remaining link to her dead parents. When a piano-moving accident leaves Clara with a broken hand and unable to work, she impulsively puts the piano for sale on Craigslist—and the response she receives sends her deep into the barren beauty of Death Valley and into a new relationship that may shed light on her family history, and on the cursed history of that piano. Reminiscent of Annie Proulx’s Accordion Crimes, Cander’s novel delves into the often unexplainable genesis of artistic inspiration and examines how family legacy—the physical objects people inherit, the genetic traits people carry on, and the generational lore people internalize—can both ignite imagination and limit its scope. Cander brilliantly and convincingly expresses music and visual art in her writing, capturing both within a near-alien but surprisingly stunning landscape.

Cassandra Campbell brings the practiced touch of a seasoned performer to her narration of this story in which a piano figures heavily. Katya Dmitrievna and Clara Lundy begin their lives a generation and a continent apart, but an old Bl�thner upright piano connects them to each other like a piano string connects hammer and key. Campbell fluidly advances their separate stories, moving deftly between the accents and attitudes of Soviet Russia and current-day California. Campbell's performance lifts up this story, even--or especially--when the truths Clara begins to discover about her piano (a gift from her father before his death) and about herself seem set to bury her under their weight. K.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine