Yiyun Li, a celebrated author known for her insightful novels and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, joins to explore William Trevor's "The Piano Tuner’s Wives." They dive into profound themes of love, jealousy, and the intricate dynamics between two women linked by a blind piano tuner. Li reflects on memory and identity, discussing how past relationships shape the present. The conversation also highlights Trevor’s subtle storytelling, revealing emotional depths and the complexities of human connection amidst beauty and heartbreak.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Yiyun Li Befriends William Trevor
Yiyun Li befriended William Trevor by writing him a fan letter after her first collection won a prize.
They corresponded and she learned a lot from his detailed observation and storytelling.
insights INSIGHT
The Opening Reveals The Story
William Trevor’s story begins with two simple lines that contain the whole story, showing masterful confidence and sly humor.
The two wives occupy the same space simultaneously, merging two marriages into one complex relationship.
insights INSIGHT
Envy Traps Belle for Decades
Belle lives with a destructive envy over Violet for 40 years rather than jealousy, which blinds her and traps her in resentment.
Her fixation on the injustice of rejection keeps her stuck in the past, preventing growth or letting go.
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Yiyun Li joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Piano Tuner’s Wives,” by William Trevor, which was published in The New Yorker in 1995. Li has published eight books of fiction, including the novels “Must I Go” and “Book of Goose,” a winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the story collection “Wednesday’s Child,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2024. A new nonfiction work, “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” will be published this month.
The New Yorker: Fiction 
