Winner of the 2013 Indies Choice Honor Award

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be - until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of.

Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father's past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will change her life once more.

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'Touching and affecting prose'

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'The story tore my mind and my heart apart and pieced both back together numerous times'

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'A magical tale to capture your imagination'

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'Part detective story, part travelogue, this poetically written novel is - above all - a love story… some will want to read it again and again'

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'his love story spanning distance and decades had me hooked within a few pages'

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'One of the most beautiful books I’ve read. I cried my eyes out!'

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'filled with imagination'

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'[The Art of Hearing Heartbeats] is a love story set in Burma…imbued with Eastern spirituality and fairy-tale romanticism…Fans of Nicholas Sparks and/or Elizabeth Gilbert should eat this up'

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'Sweetly tragic'

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'Already a huge hit in Europe, Sendker’s debut is a lush tale of romance and family set in mid-twentieth century Burma….A beautiful tale bound to enchant readers'

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'A truly beautiful story that will captivate and thaw the coldest of hearts'

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'Magical...It’s stories like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats that show how our very existence is important...What a gift that is'

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'delightful, gripping, heartwarming'