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When a successful New York lawyer disappears, a love letter he wrote many years ago to a woman in Burma is the only clue to his whereabouts. His daughter, Julia, travels to the woman's village and uncovers a tale of hardship, resilience, and passion.
“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. Sendker takes us from contemporary, upscale New York to impoverished Burma, weaving a complex tale that is part romance, part father-daughter story. 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. Telling 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 book has the right mix of romance, magic, heartache and inspiration that will make it a favorite for a lot of people.…This brilliant author, Jan-Philipp Sendker, has gifted us with a story that is so powerful and moving. It will touch your heart and you will want to share it, it is THAT good.” —Romance Book Reviews
“So intense and delicate at the same time that it takes your breath away. All human flaws become less important, all physical challenges are taken in dignity. The magic of the story evolves slowly…It will touch your heart deeply.” –Zuckerbuecherei
“A masterfully told tale of enduring love, the twists of fate and the journey life takes us on to discover what is truly important.” –SCLS Reading Suggestions
December in Kalaw is a cold month. The sky is blue and cloudless. The sun wanders from one side of the horizon to the other, but no longer climbs high enough to generate any real warmth. The air is clear and fresh, and only the most sensitive people can still detect any trace of the heavy, sweet scent of the tropical rainy season, when the clouds hang low over the village and the valley, and the water falls unchecked from the skies as if to slake a parched world’s thirst. The rainy season is hot and steamy. The market reeks of rotting meat, while heavy black flies settle on the entrails and skulls of sheep and cattle. The earth itself seems to perspire. Worms and insects crawl out of its pores. Innocent rills turn to rushing torrents that devour careless piglets, lambs, or children, only to disgorge them, lifeless, in the valley below.
But December promises the people of Kalaw a respite from all of this. December promises cold nights and mercifully cool days. December, thought Mya Mya, is a hypocrite.
She was sitting on a wooden stool in front of her house looking out over the fields and the valley to the hilltops in the distance. The air was so clear that she felt she was looking through a spyglass to the ends of the earth. She did not trust the weather. Although she could not remember ever in her life having seen a cloud in a December sky, she would not rule out the possibility of a sudden downpour. Or of a typhoon even if not a single one in living memory had found its way from the Bay of Bengal into the mountains around Kalaw. It was not impossible. As long as there were typhoons anywhere, one might well devastate Mya Mya’s native soil. Or the earth might quake. Even, or perhaps especially, on a day like today, when nothing foreshadowed catastrophe. Complacency was treacherous, confidence a luxury that Mya Mya could not afford. That much she knew at the bottom of her heart. For her there would be neither peace nor rest. Not in this world. Not in her life.
1. In your opinion, what does the back-and-forth between Julia’s and U Ba’s narratives add to the telling of the love story between Tin Win and Mi Mi? How do these stories interrelate?
2. Tin Win is born to parents who abandon him as a child but Mi Mi is born into a close-knit family. Mi Mi’s mother, especially, adores her daughter. Do you see this developmental difference reflected in the adult each one becomes, or in the way the two relate to one another?
3. After he loses his sight, Tin Win spends several years in a monastery under the tutelage of the abbot, U May. In your opinion, what does U May model for Tin Win? How does Tin Win grow in these years?
4. Tin Win’s wealthy uncle, U Saw, finances Tin Win’s eye operation and subsequent education abroad. But to U Saw’s discredit, his motives are self-interested, and for his own convenience, he obstructs all communication between Tin Win and Mi Mi. Is U Saw portrayed as a villain—or is he even villainous?
5. A portion of the novel is in the form of letters. Does this change the mood or the flow of the novel? The way you see the characters?
6. Tin Win and Mi Mi develop an intense, literally symbiotic relationship: he walks for her; she acts as his eyes. They become inseparable, but then they are separated for decades. Given what you know about each character, how do you think they are able to withstand the time apart?
7. Discuss the role of memory in the novel, both individual and collective.
8. Burma (now known as Myanmar) was occupied by the British from the nineteenth century until 1948. How important is this colonial history to the major events of the novel?
9. Prophecy and superstition play a significant role in Burmese culture. Do you think this belief system inspires a fundamental feeling of security or of anxiety in the main characters of the novel, and why?
10. The novel contrasts Western and Eastern values: individualism and personal achievement versus kinship and transcendence. Where and how are these differences brought to light?
JadeWant
Posted March 22, 2012
I Also Recommend:
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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 22, 2012
Apprentices & their mentors train here.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 16, 2012
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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.bongie
Posted April 29, 2013
Alittle boring at times and didn't move forward like it dragged on. Hated the ending also.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Michelle1948
Posted April 28, 2013
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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Just-as-I-am
Posted April 19, 2013
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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 6, 2013
Gcnvnvvb
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 11, 2013
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 8, 2013
What a lovely story. If you are a bit romantic this is a do not miss.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 23, 2013
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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 16, 2013
I loved it!!!!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.jennifers1028
Posted February 15, 2013
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!!!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.daffinito
Posted February 8, 2013
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!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.JennWNY201
Posted December 16, 2012
the best love story I have read to date!!!! a must read for the hopeless romantics <3<3<3
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 27, 2012
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.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 29, 2012
Is about all I can say. A very different read for me but highly enjoyed it and it really spoke to what we can do with what we have within ourselves. The mystery and the journey were both a great trip to take, thanks to the author.
Good book club recommend.
di
Posted May 7, 2012
The writing and sentiment of this book was lovely. The character has an almost mystical feeling to them. The story was beautifully told and I kept wanting to go back into its pages. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.S_Rochester
Posted April 30, 2012
An enchanting love story! The story involves your heart into every matter, it's simply magic.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 29, 2012
This is an amazing book! 3/4 finished and already I don't want it to end. Highly recommended.
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Overview
When a successful New York lawyer disappears, a love letter he wrote many years ago to a woman in Burma is the only clue to his whereabouts. His daughter, Julia, travels to the woman's village and uncovers a tale of hardship, resilience, and passion.