The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

This is simply the most beautiful love story between a boy named

This is simply the most beautiful love story between a boy named Tin Win and a girl named Mi-Mi that lasts over 50 years. This story will haunt you forever…like Bridges of Madison County. It has all the right elements, the right mix of romance, magic, heartache and inspiration that can’t go wrong. I've added it to my list of favorite books. Don't hesitate to buy this book!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Training grounds

Apprentices & their mentors train here.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND

I FOUND THE BOOK TO BE VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE ABOUT A DIFFERENT CULTURE. WE ARE READING IT FOR BOOK CLUB. THERE IS MUCH TO DISCUSS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS AND DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Myanmar is open and we're invited...

The heart of this novel is set in Burma, pre-WWII. The author Sendker was correspondent in America and Asia for Stern, the weekly German news magazine, for some years. This is his first novel. Sendker was successful and very clever in his choice of subject. In making the setting a mountain province of Burma, a country not much opened to the outside and stuck in a pre-WWII lifestyle, things had not changed significantly since the 1950s and if they had, very few English-speaking eyewitnesses would be able to refute it. In addition, Sendker gave his main character a disability, blindness, which gave Sendker the latitude to describe through the voice of another person what the main character was meant to be seeing. Not only does this help us, but it helps the author, in that readers are a little like a blind men: the author must describe everyday things giving focus to sounds, smells, colors. If the reader has any experience in a Southeast Asian country, the descriptions trigger unforgettable memories. But Sendker did more than just excel in describing what any reader could see. He delved into the psyche of the Burmese and showed us folk tales, beliefs, habits, and ways of living. A novel is always suspect in what it reveals, but in this case we can understand as outsiders understand, and are given a way into a South Asia culture that is so remote and so different from modern-day Western culture. All this and I haven’t mentioned the novel is a love story. But not an ordinary love story—it tells of a love that any of us would be happy to call our own. Some reviewers call this a fairy tale, but I would merely say it was an especially daring and insightful attempt to create a plausible story that works on many levels. And so it does. Special kudos go to Other Press, for republishing this story at this time of the opening of Myanmar to the outside world (2012, originally published 2002), and to Blackstone Audio for making a very good audio version of the title with American-accented Cassandra Campbell. The Americans in the novel were so much less spiritual, likeable, and accepting than the Burmese that one can see the stark contrast in our approaches to the world. Let’s hope these differences do not keep us apart. We’d all do better if we had just a little more influence on one another.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was intriguing, but I felt

I really enjoyed this book. The story was intriguing, but I felt that the ending was not as well written and thought out as the rest of the book. I was disappointed when I read the last page.

Marvelous book

Loved the book

Sensitive story

I feel this story started slowly. I felt I could put this book down and forget it but I kept reading and became intrigued. As the story developed further I read on wanting to know what would happen next. I felt teary eyed at the end, I was disappointed that the daughter's character was not developed further at the end. One can only speculate on what happened.

Loved this book!

Loved this book!!

Alittle boring at times and didn't move forward like it dragged

Alittle boring at times and didn't move forward like it dragged on. Hated the ending also.

Romantic.....a fairytale or fable

We read this for bookclub.Some of the ladies in the group used these words to describe the book...."nice, pleasant, a fable, romantic, incomplete, wanted more, a summer read".

Being a group of ladies that lean toward romance, I was surprised that the majority of the group did "not" seem to like it. They said it was just okay. Written well but just okay in the romance.

Others thought the book left out a lot .... what happened between TinWin and the American wife he had for almost 50 years? what was his relationship with his American children? The book seemed one-sided in the tale of the love between TinWin and MiMi.

As a group it left little for discussion. Normally we can discuss a book for an hour or more. This one we only discussed for 15mins and then we moved on to other things. Disappointing.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Recommend - a must read for every romantic.

The story line is wonderful, as well as, a very easy read. It is so human in it's nature as it is told not only through what is seen by the characters, but even more so, by what is heard and felt by them. It opens avenues of insight into the things we always look for in others and their situations but is rarely found using our eyes alone. It has challenged me to take more care in "hearing" my world and the wonderful people in it by not being so dependent on what I see with my eyes. It's a gold medal love story with all the challenges, twists and turns that make it worth the character's sacrifices and the reader's time.

Hckdkxs.fugyfgg

Gcnvnvvb

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Loved this story, reinforces things are not always as they appear to be.

W

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent read

What a lovely story. If you are a bit romantic this is a do not miss.

Meh

I didn't particularly enjoy this book, I think it did not match my preferences in books. I found it a little manipulative, particularly at the end. Rest of the book group loved it, though.

Great read

I loved it!!!!

AMAZING BOOK!

Loved this book so much. A great story that pulls the readed in right away. It is so detailed and there are SO many stories within stories--they are all intertwined and so beautifully written, it was very hard for me to put down. Highly recommended!!!

Read it! You won't be able to put it down.

Our book club chose this, and the description didn't grab me. But, so glad I had to read it, because I loved it. The characters were amazing, the story was touching. This book truly takes one to the depths of how life experiences affect the character and decisions made in the human life experience. Please read!

the best love story I have read to date!!!! a must read for the

the best love story I have read to date!!!! a must read for the hopeless romantics <3<3<3

This is a quirky novel with a good plot and unusual storyline. T

This is a quirky novel with a good plot and unusual storyline. The only drawback, for me personally, was that I would have liked to know more about the present day story line. The main story is in the past and is being told through flash backs and reiteration. But the present day character, who's pursuing the mystery of her father's past, isn't explored much. I would have liked to know a bit more about that character. But it's a great book and I would highly recommend it.