The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Author: Jan-Phillip Sendker

One-sentence summary: The disappearance of a father reveals a hidden past and a love story that transcends decades and miles of separation.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 8

Our favorite thing about it: The story and writing were beautiful.

Our least favorite thing about it: Some points of the story were arguable in our opinion.

Main Topics of Discussion: Family, Love, Abandonment, Culture, Spirituality, Obligation, Blindness, Honesty, Tragedy

Our favorite quote: “Life…is a gift full of riddles in which suffering and happiness are inextricably intertwined.”

Notes: We really loved this story. It grabbed us from the beginning and kept us wanting to read more. The almost mystical stories of the past begin to unfold with rich, yet readable descriptions. As a reader, you cannot help being engaged the whole time. The authors writing, especially when detailing what the blind hear, or what we really see was amazing and wonderful to read. The emotions of the characters were painted so beautifully with words, but we never felt bogged down by unnecessary adjectives or words.

We spent a little bit of time discussing the differences in cultures. Allowing for those differences helps us come to terms with choices made by the characters that modern Americans would probably not make…abandoning your son because of astrological signs, not telling your grown children that you plan to go back to your birth place and letting them wonder where you’ve gone, not saying no to an uncle who begins to decide the course of your life for you even when it takes you in the opposite direction you desire. All of these things made no sense in the context of our culture and these were the things we struggled to understand.

The tragedies in the stories tied the characters together. No one was left untouched. The different ways in which grief played out in the characters lives was interesting and enlightening. We loved almost everything about this book, but we did not completely love the ending or the way the main character did not ensure his children knew of his whereabouts. These are small things, however, in the scheme of a beautiful story with some really well done imagery and themes.

Memorable Meeting Moments: Amberly cooked up a very festive St. Patrick’s Day feast. Everything was green!

What We Ate: Salad, a Rainbow of Fruit, Green Clover Ravioli with Pesto, Green Beans, various “green” drinks, and an Irish Cream Cake.