Title: The Weight of a Piano
Author: Chris Cander
Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Length: 9 hours, 56 minutes
Narrated By: Cassandra Campbell
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Publish Date: January 22, 2019
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Recommend: Yes

We have the chance to let go of all of it.

Clara lundy

I got to read this book due to my Yelp Book Club group, although I did not finish the book on time. However, after the book club discussion, I was so excited to finish it and dive into this story that hooked me in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I swear I must be getting more into Historical Fiction, because yet again here is another one that I wasn’t expecting to like because I wasn’t used to something like this.

This story spans two time periods that slowly blur into one – and two stories that merge into one connected masterpiece. We hear from two different main characters: Katya from the Soviet Union and Clara from Sunny California. At first glance, the only thing that connects the two women is a classic era Blüthner piano, created in the early 1900s. The story of how it transformed the lives of both Katya and Clara was one that had an unexpected journey, and one that showed that sometimes even the most unlikely object can be one’s beacon of hope, or reminder of terrible times.

Cander did such an amazing job of making me want to care for both Katya and Clara, although I feel like my feelings resonated more with Katya and her story. I could feel the hurt that both women suffered during their lives, and the steps they took to try to deal with everything that they had gone through. Katya had a will to live, through the music she created from her piano, and it was almost like her whole life was dependent on that piano. When it disappears, her soul went with it. Who knew that an object such as that could affect the livelihood of a single woman?

Clara, on the other hand, couldn’t look at the piano without thinking of the parents that left her behind – killed in a fire that burned their house down with everything in it. How the piano survived, well you’ll have to read it to find out. And yet, while this piano has nothing but bad memories attached to it for Clara, she just can’t seem to get rid of it, and had an explainable attachment to something that she doesn’t find joy in whatsoever.

Once again, I found this book intriguing and one that I just had to get through. Cassandra Campbell – the audiobook narrator – did an amazing job of bringing this story to life for me. The historical part of this book wasn’t as pronounced as others, but that didn’t deter me from enjoying this book. I highly recommend this book to those that are wanting to expand their horizons to other genres, or anyone that even has a musical or artistic eye that can appreciate what Cander did to show the power of music through her eyes.