The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a beautiful new novel by Jan-Philipp Sendker.

After coming across an old love letter from her father to an unknown woman, Julia, a New York lawyer, sets off for Burma in search of her father, four years after his disappearance. There she meets a man named U Ba who claims to know her father and the story of the first twenty years of his life growing up in a remote village in Burma. The novel unfolds like a long poem as he tells this story to the Julia.

This is one of the most beautifully written novels I’ve read in a long time. Sendker’s writing transports us to the other side of the world, into the heartbeat of the tiniest creatures, even an unborn bird about to hatch from it’s egg. A heartbreakingly tender and magical love story, reminding us of the possibililty of unconditional love. Highly recommended.