An international bestseller, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, was recently translated and published here in the United States so that we could all enjoy it.

An original paperback, written by  Jean-Phillipp Sendker, has a title that has caused several people to stop in their tracks while browsing the bookstore. Set in Burma, you first meet Julia who is sitting in a tiny cafe after traveling many hours to find her father. At this cafe, she is approached by a man who knows her name, why she is there and her life story. Across the world from her home of New York City, it seems unbelievable that someone knows her. Sitting at the table, in the cafe, Julia is about to learn her life story.

Julia’s father, who was most recently a New York City lawyer, has vanished. Julia comes across a love letter from her father to a lady named Mi Mi. This letter is what leads Julia to the little village in Burma. The man who found  her in the cafe, a stranger, soon unravels the story of Tin Tin (Julia’s father) and Mi Mi.

What Julia knows of her father is this: he met and married her mother. Together they have Julia and her sister. Prior to all that, she learns that her father, as a young boy, was blind. He met a girl Mi Mi, who was unable to walk but fell in love with her because he was drawn to her.  Because he could not see, he was not drawn to her because of the way she looked;  it was because he could so clearly hear her heartbeat.

The love story between these two is unbelievable. Tin Tin would carry Mi Mi around on his back. She would be his eyes. She would direct him as he walked, described what he could not see and cared for him more than anyone else had. Tin Tin became Mi Mi’s feet. He was her form of transportation. He carried her on his back-every step of the way. Together these two saw the world unlike anyone else ever had.

You know the love story between these two ended in one way or another. After all, Julia’s father somehow ended up in New York City with sight, working as a lawyer and married to her mother.

While in Burma, Julia tracks her father down and finds out more on his reunion with Mi Mi. That, in itself, is worth the read.  -Quinn

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