Julia meets a man who has been waiting for her to come, a man who had met her father 4 years ago and has a story to tell her. Once again, author and translator alike, have magically strung a beautiful piece of writing together. This book, like it’s prequel is a beautifully written story with a lyrical style that leaves you wanting more. ”—Good Book Fairy The essence of a thing is invisible to the eye, U May said. Learn to perceive the essence of a thing. Eyes are more likely to hinder you in that regard. They distract us. We love to be dazzled.” Book clubs fall for these things all the time. While I'd like to think my book club is above the baiting (because we're pretty good at weeding them out), once in a while a book like this one comes along and catches us off guard for whatever reason, and we don't realize what we'd gotten ourselves into until we're half way through the self-sacrificing, self-discovery journey.

Int’l Best-Selling Novel Set in Myanmar to Be Adapted for Big Int’l Best-Selling Novel Set in Myanmar to Be Adapted for Big

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 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. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, #1) by Jan-Philipp Sendker – eBook Details Currently, they are casting the actors in Thailand, [Myanmar] and other countries. I and other [crew] members went to Kalaw last month for location scouting,” Sendker told The Irrawaddy. of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker I have often wondered what was the source of her beauty, her radiance. It’s not the size of one’s nose, the color of one’s skin, the shape of one’s lips or eyes that make one beautiful or ugly. So what is it? Can you, as a woman, tell me?Julia travels to Rangoon, the place of her father’s birth. She immediately meets an odd elderly man named U Ba, who recognized her on sight. He asks her “do you believe in love Julia?” He has a tale he wants to tell, about her father. Julia just wants to find her father; she doesn’t want to waste time hearing some fairy tale about her father and his past. I really enjoyed listening to this story. The story of Tin Min and Mi Mi is really touching. Their lives unfold in a manner that each would have changed, if they could, yet they stayed true to each other. Their love never faltered and they were bound together always. Life is a gift full of riddles in which suffering and happiness are inextricably intertwined. Any attempt to have one without the other was simply bound to fail.” An absolutely transcendent novel that doesn’t just dare to understand the human heart, it inhabits it. About love, unspeakable loss, and coming to know what really saves us in life, this is the kind of stunningly perfect novel that changes lives. I know it did mine. To say I loved it is pure understatement.”—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of Youand Is This Tomorrow

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: the international bestselling The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: the international bestselling

Every life contains the seed of death,” he had explained to Tin Win repeatedly in those first years of their friendship. Death, like birth, was a part of life that no one could escape. It was senseless to resist it. Far better to accept it as natural than to fear it.” The true essence of things is invisible to the eyes...Our sensory organs love to lead us astray, and eyes are the most deceptive of all. We rely too heavily on them. We believe that we see the world around us, and yet it is only the surface that we perceive. We must learn to divine the true nature of things, their substance, and the eyes are rather a hindrance than a help in that regard. They distract us. We love to be dazzled. A person who relies too heavily on his eyes neglects his other senses--and I mean more than his hearing or sense of smell. I'm talking about the organ within us for which we have no name. Let us call it the compass of the heart.” I speak of a love that brings sight to the blind. Of a love stronger than fear. I speak of a love that breathes meaning into life, that defies the natural laws of deterioration, that causes us to flourish, that knows no bounds. I speak of the triumph of the human spirit over selfishness and death.” Sendker wrote the script himself. Regarding the difference between writing a novel and script, he said, “It’s different than writing a novel because you do not have the inner monologue and you have to find images and scenes without words. Not easy.” And so there must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know ceases to exist. A moment that transform us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next.”From beginning to end this book is captivating. Tugging at the heartstrings, the story reveals human connectivity and exercises the wide-range of human emotion.”— MegSchuster.com Völlig frei von Kitsch, Klischee und plakativen philosophischen Allgemeinsätzen beschreibt Sendker dies in einer Art und Weise, die das Buch zu einem sehr nachhaltigen und nachdenklichen Leseerlebnis werden lassen. Trotz vieler trauriger Aspekte ist die Geschichte für mich ein Hoffnungsträger, Hoffnungsträger für jeden Leser, jede dahinterstehende Biografie und die Menschen dieser Welt.

A Well-tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker: 9781590516409 A Well-tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker: 9781590516409

A tender coming of age tale, wrapped up in a modern woman's journey to find out the truth about her mysterious, exotic and ultimately unreachable father, this book will mesmerize you with its many poetic turns of phrase. But in the end you will feel like a better person for having experienced a love story that spans ages, continents, cultures and families. I will tell you: It's love. Love makes us beautiful. Do you know a single person who loves and is loved, who is loved unconditionally and who, at the same time, is ugly? There's no need to ponder the question. There is no such person.” Book Genre: Adult, Adult Fiction, Asia, Book Club, Contemporary, Cultural, Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance As I was reading this book I was fully engaged and enjoying the story, the Burmese setting, the fairy tale quality to the narration....but as soon as I finished and started to reflect on it, the whole thing imploded like a house of cards. As much as I really wanted to like this book, it hit several of my hot buttons:No. I speak of a love that brings sight to the blind. Of a love stronger than fear. I speak of a love that breathes meaning into life, that defies the natural laws of deterioration, that causes us to flourish, that knows no bounds. I speak of the triumph of the human spirit over selfishness and death.” A] hauntingly beautiful sequel to The Art of Hearing Heartbeats… A Well-Tempered Heart touches the reader on many levels. It is a love story: love of a mother for her sons, love between a sister and brother, and love between a man and a woman.”— The Freelance-Star U Ba telling the story to Julia resulted in an interesting cultural comparison between the slower, family-oriented life of the people of Burma and the fast-paced, career-centric life of the typical New Yorker. She could not understand why he chose to live in Burma and he could not understand why she thought he had a choice. Aside from the main story of Tin Win and Mi Mi, I thoroughly enjoyed the juxtaposition of the cultures and how it made me truly think about what is important in my life.