The Piano Teacher, by Janice Lee

Characters
1941	1952
Will Truesdale Trudy Liang (Portuguese and Chinese) Wan Kee Liang – Trudy’s father Victor and Melody Chen – Trudy’s cousin Dommick Wong – Trudy’s friend and cousin Regionald Arbogast Ned Young - Canadian Otsubo Edwina Storch Mary Winkle	Claire Martin Will Truesdale Victor and Melody Chen Locket Reginald Arbogast – business man and party host Edwina Storch Mary Winkle

For discussion:

1.       Discuss the prisoners’ treatment in the detention camps.  At one point the author wrote, “And the random cruelty makes them all wary.”  How do you think the prisoners were able to survive their conditions?

2.       The three people who knew where the Crown Collection was hidden were Victor Chen, Edwina Storch and Reginald Arbogast. 

a.       Were you surprised that Edwina was such an important figure in this part of the story?

b.      Why did Edwina tell Otsubo that Trudy knew where the collection was?

3.       Discuss Claire and Martin.  Why did Claire begin to steal?  Why was Martin so uninvolved?

4.       Discuss Will’s role throughout the novel. 

a.       Discuss his and Claire’s relationship.  Who benefited and who was hurt?

5.       When did you begin to suspect that Locket was Trudy’s baby?  What were the clues?

6.       Discuss the writing style.  In the beginning there was very little detail about the historical setting for the novel.  This changed about the time in the story when the foreigners were imprisoned.  Did you like this?  Did it add or detract from the story?