Daniel Mason wrote the bulk of “The Piano Tuner” while studying malaria on the Thai-Myanmar border, fresh out of Harvard with a degree in biology.

His familiarity with this setting lends itself well to his narrative of Edgar, a British piano tuner sent on a curious mission deep in the heart of 19th-century Burma. Mason’s lush and atmospheric descriptions of Burma are wonderful, and combined with an engrossing narrative his story is an all-together excellent read.

Edgar is an expert piano tuner who lives a quiet life in London with his wife, Katherine. In October 1886, Edgar receives a curious request from the British War Office. Deep in the jungles of British-occupied Burma, an unorthodox general, Dr. Carroll, has achieved an uneasy peace with the Shan rebels through unusual means: music, poetry and medicine.

Having managed to ship in a rare Erard grand piano, the doctor has now requested a piano tuner be sent to him, specifically a piano tuner who has a special knowledge of the Erard brand. The British War Office begrudgingly agrees; although it dislikes Carroll’s methods, it admires his results, and so it summons Edgar for an audience.

Intrigued by the doctor’s request and anxious for an opportunity to travel, Edgar accepts the commission and finds himself aboard a ship bound for Burma within a month.

Along the way, he encounters a variety of interesting characters and starts to hear the many stories about the mysterious Doctor Carroll. When Edgar finally arrives in Burma, even more elements of “The Heart of Darkness” are added.

Alternately fascinated with the Burmese culture and repulsed by the British colonialists, Edgar begins the difficult journey upland to Carroll’s isolated fort, where his world begins to unravel.

Mason evokes 19th Century Burma with the rich sights and smells of a vanished world: the creep of vines over abandoned temples, the bustling marketplaces and the winding jungle paths. Like Edgar, the reader is seduced by the haunting, beautiful setting.

Mason also populates his novel with a variety of well-drawn and colorful characters — the looming, charismatic Carroll, the pensive piano tuner Edgar, the beautiful Burmese woman Khin Myo and an entire host of wonderful secondary characters: soldiers, bandits and mystics alike.

And best of all, Mason can really write. His sense of pacing is keen, lingering just long enough on delicious little side-stories before moving back to the main plot. The reader is continually engaged and intrigued, and the build-up to the unforeseen conclusion is appropriately tense.

Furthermore, Mason’s poetic descriptions and interludes never seem forced or pretentious, and they contribute to the overall haunting effect of the book.

My only problem with this novel arises with the ending, which is needlessly depressing. If Mason had just altered the last several pages, “The Piano Tuner” would have been flawless.

Nevertheless, this is an extraordinary debut novel which completely engrosses the reader all the way through and vividly recreates a unique time and place.

Grade: A