This was not at all what I expected! As a teenager, Tomura hears a piano tuner working on an instrument at his school, and the sound transports him to a forest landscape - metaphorically, not literally. The sound gives him a strong sense-memory of the mountain forests of his home, and I picked it up off the library shelf thinking that it sounded like it might be a magical realist exploration of landscape and music. It wasn't. That speculative, dreamy element isn't really there at all. Instead, Tomura becomes a piano tuner himself, and learns to see the beauty in all types of pianos, and all types of piano players.

It's a very gentle, kindhearted read, and apparently a bestseller in Japan, where it's set. I do find it a little slow, and perhaps a little too contemplative for my tastes, but it was still an enjoyable read. I just can't shake the feeling that I'd rather it was the book I thought, rather than the book that it is. Which is an absolute failing on my part, and one that's completely counter to the lovely message of the story as a whole. Tomura would no doubt shake his head at me, and he'd probably be right to.