{"product_id":"the-piano-tuner-stories-9780820316451","title":"The Piano Tuner: Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Tuner\u003c\/i\u003e, Peter Meinke writes of the foreignness that awaits us when we go abroad and when we answer our own front door to admit a stranger, that confronts us in unfamiliar cities and villages and in the equally disquieting surroundings of our memories and regrets. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOften in these stories, what seems a safe, comfortable environment turns suddenly threatening. In the title story, a writer's quiet existence amid his antiques and books is dismantled, piece by piece, by a demonic, beer-bellied piano tuner. In \"The Ponoes,\" a man recalls how, as a young boy living in Brooklyn during World War II, he became a collaborationist in the brutal pranks of two Irish bullies. In \"The Twisted River,\" the sedate collegiality of a Polish university is disrupted when an American on a Fulbright grant attempts to blackmail two faculty members. And in \"The Bracelet,\" a young anthropology student doing field work in Africa finds herself drawn further and further into the role of a priestess of Oshun, into a life dictated by the configuration of cowry shells cast upon the floor. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMeinke writes of a world where our control over our lives seldom exists across a border, and often extends no further than our fingertips. Attempts to bridge two cultures, two lives are sometimes successful, as when an actor finds love in the arms of a tough-talking barmaid, but more usually lead to disillusionment, as when a hard-drinking salesman's career is shattered after he is drunk under the table one night by a Polish engineer, or when an English father struggles to find common ground with his American son. Riveting, almost terrifying, the stories in \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Tuner\u003c\/i\u003e tell of decent men and women caught in events that they could never have predicted, would never have chosen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/1994\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820316451\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 168\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.53lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.48h x 5.53w x 0.56d","brand":"Peter Meinke","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52146977898677,"sku":"9780820316451","price":20.36,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_900196d8-1a16-492c-8ac6-66a38c28aae5.jpg?v=1767678291","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-piano-tuner-stories-9780820316451","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}