58 pages • 1 hour read
Ann-Marie MacDonaldA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section describes pedophilia.
“Everyone is dead,” the novel starts before the novel flashes back in time to explain what has happened. Using the metaphor of a photo album, the unidentified narrator introduces the setting and then each of the principal characters by capturing each in a photo. Only Kathleen is not pictured: All but one of her photos are destroyed, and Kathleen now sings in heaven.
James Piper was raised in Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, by a loving mother who dreamed her son would not waste his life working in the local coal mines. She taught him to play piano and to love music. His father, a shoemaker, was abusive toward James’s mother. Because she loved the piano, one day he took a hammer to the instrument. James, determined to help his mother, taught himself how to rebuild the piano, becoming a piano tuner in the process. In 1897, when he is old enough to leave home, James heads to the island’s biggest city, Sydney, certain there were lots of pianos there.
By Ann-Marie MacDonald
Canadian Literature
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Childhood & Youth
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Family
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Fathers
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Fear
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Good & Evil
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Historical Fiction
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LGBTQ Literature
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Magical Realism
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Music
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Popular Book Club Picks
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Pride Month Reads
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Pride & Shame
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Religion & Spirituality
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Sexual Harassment & Violence
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Truth & Lies
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