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Book Summary and Reviews of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

by Jan-Philipp Sendker

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  • Jan 2012, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be... until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father's past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader's belief in the power of love to move mountains.

Paperback original

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[The Art of Hearing Heartbeats] is a love story set in Burma… imbued with Eastern spirituality and fairy-tale romanticism… Fans of Nicholas Sparks and/or Elizabeth Gilbert should eat this up." - Kirkus Reviews

"An epic narrative that requires… a large box of tissues." - Publishers Weekly

"Sweetly tragic." - Library Journal

"No matter what I even attempt to say, I can't possibly capture the absolute magic of this book. Like a spell, it haunts. Like love, it's going to endure." - Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You

"A story at once both poignant and joyous, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats reaffirms how love can transform the harshest of realities into a mystical one... Reading this book was like reading poetry, with full attention required for each sentence. A thoroughly immersive and enjoyable read." - Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife

"Set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a rare novel... the story of a young blind man's journey through a world of auditory intensity, Jan-Philipp Sendker renews one's faith in the possibility of real, pure love. I finished the book in tears." - Shawna Yang Ryan, author of Water Ghosts

This information about The Art of Hearing Heartbeats was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cathryn Conroy

Enchanting, Passionate and Profound: Read and Enjoy
Magic. Pure magic. This book—with prose that reads more like poetry—is a sheer delight. I have no idea how to classify it. It's a haunting fable. And a passionate love story. And an enchanting mystery. I wanted to hurriedly read to find out what would happen next, but I had to keep stopping to reread whole paragraphs because they were so beautifully written. Elegant writing cannot be cheated no matter how engrossing the plot.

When Julia Win's successful and wealthy father mysteriously disappears from their New York apartment soon after her law school graduation, she decides to track him down half a world away. Her only clue is a letter he has written to a mysterious lover in Burma. Is he leading a double life? Julia will find out, and in the process, she finds out more than she could ever imagine about herself and the transcendent power of love.

This short book by Jan-Philipp Sendker is a profound story about the true meaning of love, a wake-up for us all in this rather jaded world in which we live. Escape in it and simply enjoy!

Melissa

The art of hearing heartbeats
Great book- I did not want the story to end! Very good writer - made me feel like I was part of the story- took me to Burma!!

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Author Information

Jan-Philipp Sendker Author Biography

Photo: Frank Suffert

Jan-Philipp Sendker, born in Hamburg in 1960, was the American correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. In 2000 he published Cracks in the Wall, a nonfiction book about China. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, his first novel, was an international bestseller. He lives in Berlin with his family.

Author Interview

Other books by Jan-Philipp Sendker at BookBrowse
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