The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: A Novel by Jan-Philipp Sendker

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a special book. I mean, it is an international best seller, but that's not the only reason why this book is a diamond in your library. I honestly feel in classrooms 20 or 30 years from now this book will be a topic of discussion. At least, I hope very hard that it will make it that far.

This novel has two stories going on. One is of Julia Win who travels to Burma to try and find out why her father disappeared from her life. The other is the tale of Tin Win, Julia's father, told by U Ba. Julia is shocked by the things U Ba tells her: her father used to blind, he had another lover named MiMi, and much more. While on one hand I wanted to be upset with Tin Win for just up and leaving his father in New York, his life story brought me to tears.

A basic overview is that when he was born, he was born on a Friday in December. To his mother, this was a bad sign. After repeated "bad luck" such as the chickens dying, his superstitious mother, of course, went to the village astrologer with her husband. The astrologer basically predicted doom, but not like "He's going to destroy the village"-doom. He just said Tin Win would have a medical problem with his eyes.

After the death of her husband, Tin Win's mother packed up her few belongings and told Tin Win, who was maybe like 5 years old, to sit on the tree stump in their yard and wait for her to return. Days passed and Tin Win refused to leave the stump. Eventually, the neighbour, Su Kyi, came by and gently made the now starving Tin Win return to the house. Su Kyi took care of Tin Win from then on. Eventually, Tin Win's blindness set in which left him feeling helpless and lost.

Su Kyi took Tin Win to the local monastery where he took classes under U May, who was also blind. Tin Win excelled and blossomed into an intelligent young man. Soon, though, he discovered his greatest gift: the gift of hearing heartbeats. He muses over how hearts sound characteristic to the person. This amazing power leads him to meet the love of his life, MiMi.

While at first helpless in his blindness, MiMi helps him learn what different sounds are. I swear I was so happy when Tin Win met MiMi. She was a cripple and Tin Win would carry her on his back and she would guide him. To say I find that slightly adorable would be an understatement. The love they shared was so pure and honestly made my heart swell with joy.

Throughout this, Julia, a lawyer from New York, begins to experience a change of heart. Amazingly, she becomes closer to her father because of hearing his story from U Ba.

I won't spoil the ending or the rest of the book because honestly this book is so worth picking up. I feel like I've had a pretty good track record of picking good books, but this work of art blows all of them out of the water. The ending of this book was especially beautiful and heartwarming. I recommend this is if you want to be shown the true meaning of love and how true love never corrodes or fails.

It amazes me the simple ways this book affects me. With such unadorned language, Jan-Philipp Sendker conveys love in the most powerful way I have read. I thought I knew what love was by reading books, but this book taught me that love is truly patient and never ending. Tin Win, even when he was forced to leave MiMi, never ceased loving her and neither did she him. I can only hope that I can experience such a love.