Please read this book slowly, take your time. Savour every minute of reading and every single page of the book!
In 1886 the piano tuner Edgar Drake is summoned to a remote military outpost in the Shan States to tune an 1840 Erard piano. The piano to be tuned belongs to the somewhat eccentric Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Carroll was granted the piano itself as well as to have it tuned by a specialist by the British War Office, because his efforts of bringing peace to that region have proven invaluable to the British Crown.
During this fabulously narrated tale the reader is taken on Drake's journey to Burma, via France, the coasts of Africa, Bombay, Allahabad and Benares to the Bay of Bengal and finally to the fictional place of Mae Lwin.
The author has found a marvellous way to depict Drake's 5,000 mile-journey to Mae Lwin, the wonders of nature, the way of life in the colonies as well as the mysteries of human nature.
Besides dwelling on beauty he points out the differences between Burman and English culture and in a subtle, yet very impressive way the intrusion of the colonial masters into the spirits and lives of their colonial subjects (e.g. setting up military headquarters right next to a pagoda).
The coaction between the characters of Edgar Drake, Dr. Anthony Carroll and Khin Myo is stunning and exceptional.
The story of the "Man with one story" as well as the little poem about the lotus-eaters have captivated me. I didn't want to finish this book. If I had been in Mae Lwin, I wouldn't have wanted to leave it either.
I can nearly guarantee you that you will become a lotus-eater too, once you have started reading this book (you will understand this reference then as well).
Result: 5 stars are more than justified for this astonishing debut-novel of such a young man!