cocoonofbooks 's review for:

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

4.0

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So, this book requires a big helping of suspension of disbelief. There are a number of plot holes and unanswered questions, many of the characters are all good or all bad, and people talk in long, uninterrupted monologues, all of which should make me hate this book. But I still loved it. It's just a beautifully written, sweet, sad story. It's a love story between a boy who is blind and the girl with deformed feet whom he carries around on his back as she acts as his eyes. It's written within the framework of a story being told many years later to the boy's daughter, who has come to Burma to search for him after he suddenly abandoned their family. Perhaps I liked it so much because of the fantastic audiobook narrator who brought Sendker's musical language to life. Despite its many problems, I still think this is a book worth reading.