Front cob=ver of an edition of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats.
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (ISBN 9781846972409) by Jan-Philipp Sendker is a 2002 novel with a story within a story. A young lawyer, Julia Win, seeks to solve the mystery of her father's abrupt and unexplained departure from home and his subsequent disappearance. In her search, she travels around the world to Burma. There she meets U Ba, who tells her he's been expecting her. He then begins the inner story that makes up the majority of the book.
This is the author's first book in English. The original title was Das Herzenhören (the heartbeat). The translation copyright (2006) is Kevin Wiliarty's.
Review
This book has an interesting, soothing pace. The mystery around the father's disappearance and then a curiosity about how U Ba's story ties into Julia's father's drew me into the story and kept me reading. I expected part of the ending, but the plot provided many twists to get to an ultimately satisfying close.
If you like this book, I'd also recommend The Bone People
