The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

But it also presents certain problems.Īs though bestowing a renewed power of sight, U Ba paints for Julia a hitherto unseen portrait of her father as a young man, which Julia supplements with her own memories. This overlap of adaptability, discovery and reformulation may be the book’s principal narrative charm. His urgent adaptations to these dual calamities – like his preternaturally improved hearing to compensate for his blindness – anticipate Julia’s own ongoing revisions of the image of her father. A moment that transforms us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next.” Blindness changes her father irrevocably. Julia muses on that “catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist. First he is cast off by his superstitious mother who, after consulting the local astrologer, believes him to be “a harbinger of calamity.” Next, he loses his sight. Julia learns of two major events that blight her father’s childhood. Sendker’s novel is the framed narrative that results: we read as a rapt Julia becomes engrossed in the story of her father’s tumultuous history in pre-war Burma. Julia has a chance encounter in a tea house with an old man called U Ba who claims to be able to give her the answers she needs as long as she’s willing to listen. His successes and commitments have made it all the more baffling that he should disappear without a trace. Tin Win rose from his humble Burmese origins to become a top Wall Street lawyer. Julia Win flies from New York to the remote village of Kalaw in Myanmar to track down her father who seemingly abandoned her four years ago and has absconded to Asia. Other Press has made it available in English, in an expert translation by Kevin Wiliarty.įrom its start the tale shimmers with the allure of some “hidden realm,” as Sendker calls it, being freshly brought into view.

Sendker tells the story of an incorruptible love, forged by two kindred spirits, set against the rustic yet lushly exotic backdrop of Southeast Asia.

This debut novel, originally published in 2002 as Das Herzenhören in Jan-Philipp Sendker’s native Germany, went on to become a national bestseller, and it’s easy to see why.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker