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A review by katykelly
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
4.0
Firstly, my apologies if I spell any names incorrectly - I listened to the audiobook, so have no idea how the character names are written and am going on other reviews.
This was a pleasant audio read, not too complicated a story to follow, with straightforward enough narration to know who was speaking. The story, of a father deserting his family and his adult daughter following in his footsteps and discovering his secrets, intriguing enough. What made it stand out a little was the fact that the father, Tin Win, comes from Burma, and so Burmese culture and settings were made central to the story. It was quite vivid, though hard to keep up with some similar sounding names (possibly easier in print). A friend of Tin Win tells his daughter Julia about her father's life from his earliest days of being seen as a curse, to his boyhood when he goes blind, to his maturity into an adult and the ability mentioned in the title.
It's a love story about children and parents as well as men and women. I found some aspects of the love story a little unrealistic and a bit much, but it was still beautifully written and moving. The ending especially so.
I felt I learned about Burmese culture through Sendker's book and thought the translation was very good - some beautiful language in there.
This was a pleasant audio read, not too complicated a story to follow, with straightforward enough narration to know who was speaking. The story, of a father deserting his family and his adult daughter following in his footsteps and discovering his secrets, intriguing enough. What made it stand out a little was the fact that the father, Tin Win, comes from Burma, and so Burmese culture and settings were made central to the story. It was quite vivid, though hard to keep up with some similar sounding names (possibly easier in print). A friend of Tin Win tells his daughter Julia about her father's life from his earliest days of being seen as a curse, to his boyhood when he goes blind, to his maturity into an adult and the ability mentioned in the title.
It's a love story about children and parents as well as men and women. I found some aspects of the love story a little unrealistic and a bit much, but it was still beautifully written and moving. The ending especially so.
I felt I learned about Burmese culture through Sendker's book and thought the translation was very good - some beautiful language in there.