Regardless of the many good reviews, Opera Chic is reading Janice Y. K. Lee's "The Piano Teacher" because, basically, Lee had us at "a doily! on the Steinway!".
May 1952
It started as an accident. The small Herend rabbit had fallen into Claire's purse. It had been on the piano and she had been gathering up the sheet music at the end of the lesson when she knocked it off. It fell off the doily (a doily! on the Steinway!) and into her large leather bag. What had happened after that was perplexing, even to her. Locket had been staring down at the keyboard and hadn't noticed. And then, Claire had just . . . left. It wasn't until she was downstairs and waiting for the bus that she grasped what she had done. And then it had been too late. She went home and buried the expensive porcelain figurine under her sweaters.
Author interview with the WSJ here.