What do you think?
Rate this book
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats #3
The Heart Remembers
Twelve-year-old Ko Bo Bo lives with his uncle U Ba in Kalaw, a town in Burma. An unusually perceptive child, Bo Bo can read people’s emotions in their eyes. This acute sensitivity only makes his unconventional home life more difficult: His father comes to visit him once a year, and he can hardly remember his mother, who, for unclear reasons, keeps herself away from her son.
Everything changes when Bo Bo discovers the story of his parents’ great love, which threatens to break down in the whirlwind of political events, and of his mother’s mysterious sickness. Convinced that he can heal her and reunite their family, Bo Bo decides to set out in search of his parents.
A gripping, heartwarming tale that takes the reader from Burma to New York and back, The Heart Remembers is a worthy conclusion to Jan-Philipp Sendker’s beloved series.b>
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2019
150 people are currently reading
2836 people want to read
About the author
Jan-Philipp Sendker
19 books1,008 followersJan-Philipp Sendker, born in Hamburg in 1960, and, longing to travel the world, became the American correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. In 2000 he published Cracks in the Great Wall, a nonfiction book about China. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is his first novel, and since then, he has written 3 further novels, including a sequel to "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats", "A Well-Tempered Heart". In 2013, he received The indies Choice Honor Award in the category Adult Fiction for "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. He lives in Potsdam with his family and is currently working on the third installment in his China-trilogy.
http://artofhearingheartbeats.com
http://artofhearingheartbeats.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 203 reviews
October 22, 2020
The Heart Remembers by Jan-Philipp Sendker
And the saga continues! After waiting what seemed like forever, I was thrilled to read the final chapter in the life of Julia! Sendker’s latest story does not disappoint. Even the title of this book as well as the previous ones offer much insight into the lives of the characters. Bo Bo, Julia’s son, is a troubled child who yearns for a mother that he hasn’t seen in years and can barely remember. Sendker, a master storyteller, weaves a lovely and engrossing tale of a child’s search for belonging and ultimately the importance of love and forgiveness. Loved this book and hate that it has come to an end! A must read!
And the saga continues! After waiting what seemed like forever, I was thrilled to read the final chapter in the life of Julia! Sendker’s latest story does not disappoint. Even the title of this book as well as the previous ones offer much insight into the lives of the characters. Bo Bo, Julia’s son, is a troubled child who yearns for a mother that he hasn’t seen in years and can barely remember. Sendker, a master storyteller, weaves a lovely and engrossing tale of a child’s search for belonging and ultimately the importance of love and forgiveness. Loved this book and hate that it has come to an end! A must read!
September 27, 2019
Diesen 3. Teil der "Burma - Serie, habe ich nicht ganz so zügig gelesen wie die beiden ersten Bände. Einerseits lag es an fehlender Zeit und leider auch daran, dass mich dieses Buch nicht so fesselte wie die beiden anderen Bücher. Zu Beginn noch hatte ich den Eindruck, dass ich mich nahtlos wieder in die Atmosphäre der Vorgängerbücher einfinden konnte. Aber mit zunehmendem Lesen verlor sich der Sog und auch die Stimmung. Inhaltlich passt sich die Geschichte durchaus. Sie ist stimmig und nachvollziehbar. Aber für mich bot sie nicht mehr die Tiefe, die ich nach den beiden anderen Büchern erwartete. Gerade muss ich schmunzeln, da ich Thar Thar förmlich sagen höre: "Warum erwartest du etwas? Lass alles so sein wie es ist und es ist gut." Aber auch dann kann ich mich nicht gänzlich mit dem Buch so anfreunden wie mit den beiden anderen. Mir fehlte es an besonderen Aspekten, die das Buch in seiner Einzigartigkeit nachhaltig werden lassen. Jan-Philipp Sendker hat sicherlich zurecht das Leben Thar Thars und Julias fortgeführt. Die tiefe Liebe zwischen beiden stellt er ebenfalls sehr eindrücklich da. Dabei beschönigt er auch keineswegs menschliche Schwächen, Ängste und Seelennöte, was dem Ganzen durchaus viel Bedenkenswertes entnehmen lässt. Er beschreibt und erzählt in gleicher realen und empathischen Weise wie auch in den ersten beiden Büchern.
Dennoch schwingt bei mir ein nicht ganz greifbares "Aber" mit. "Aber" vielleicht deswegen, weil es ähnliche Geschichten gibt; "aber" auch deswegen, weil es keine neuen tiefgründigen Gedankengänge mehr gibt, die mich nachhaltig beschäftigen werden. Zudem verliert sich die Beschreibung, dass Bo Bo in den Augen der Menschen lesen kann zunehmend, bis diese Fähigkeit keinerlei Erwähnung mehr findet. Dies wäre eine mögliche Besonderheit oder Einzigartigkeit für mich gewesen.
Ich bin sicherlich einerseits mit viel zu großen Erwartungen an das Lesen dieses Buches gegangen und andererseits habe ich beim Lesen des Titels andere Vorstellungen mit in die Geschichte gebracht, von denen der Autor natürlich nicht wissen kann. In sofern kann er nichts dafür, wenn ich enttäuscht bin.
Allerdings gibt es durchaus Passagen, an die ich noch länger denken werde. So beschreibt er die Zeit in New York. Durch Thar Thars Sichtweisen wird einem als Leser immer wieder bewusst wie unsinnig und unnütz viele unserer Gedanken, Fragen und Lebensweisen sein können.
Trotz allem bin ich froh das Buch gelesen haben und somit die ganze Geschichte zu kennen.
Dennoch schwingt bei mir ein nicht ganz greifbares "Aber" mit. "Aber" vielleicht deswegen, weil es ähnliche Geschichten gibt; "aber" auch deswegen, weil es keine neuen tiefgründigen Gedankengänge mehr gibt, die mich nachhaltig beschäftigen werden. Zudem verliert sich die Beschreibung, dass Bo Bo in den Augen der Menschen lesen kann zunehmend, bis diese Fähigkeit keinerlei Erwähnung mehr findet. Dies wäre eine mögliche Besonderheit oder Einzigartigkeit für mich gewesen.
Ich bin sicherlich einerseits mit viel zu großen Erwartungen an das Lesen dieses Buches gegangen und andererseits habe ich beim Lesen des Titels andere Vorstellungen mit in die Geschichte gebracht, von denen der Autor natürlich nicht wissen kann. In sofern kann er nichts dafür, wenn ich enttäuscht bin.
Allerdings gibt es durchaus Passagen, an die ich noch länger denken werde. So beschreibt er die Zeit in New York. Durch Thar Thars Sichtweisen wird einem als Leser immer wieder bewusst wie unsinnig und unnütz viele unserer Gedanken, Fragen und Lebensweisen sein können.
Trotz allem bin ich froh das Buch gelesen haben und somit die ganze Geschichte zu kennen.
August 5, 2021
Sorry - I understand depression. But I cannot understand how someone can love her partner more than her child. I can never forgive anyone for doing to her son what she did. Total disappointment in reading this book.
February 21, 2022
I loved the others in this series, which is perhaps why this was so damned disappointing. So much didn’t make sense … and in the end you can’t help but find Julia selfish, unstable, weak … all the things she was not supposed to be. And Thar Thar? After everything he’d been through … to treat his own son like that? These are not likable characters. No child should be forced to be the mature and responsible one because his parents are trash. And that’s exactly how this played out. Disappointing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2023
This was a donation in my Little Free Library Shed. I was a little hesitant to begin reading, understanding this is the last book in the trilogy. But a friend of mine said I could read it as a stand-alone. So, I did. I am now bringing my review to Goodreads.
This truly is a beautiful story. A tribute to love and forgiveness.
Premise: Ko Bo Bo is 12 and lives with his 80 year old uncle, U Ba, in Kalaw, Burma. He is a smart and perceptive boy. He can speak English, which sometimes gets him in trouble, because he does it better than his teachers. He also has a large scar on the left side of his face for which he has no idea how it came to be. He only sees his father once a year, and he never sees his mother. He doesn't understand any of this. So, he sets off on a journey to find out.
The characters are beautifully drawn. The love and compassion between characters is felt deeply. The history of the country is felt and experienced through the story of the past that is shared.
Small moments. Sweet moments. Would I have benefited more from Book 1 and Book 2?
This truly is a beautiful story. A tribute to love and forgiveness.
Premise: Ko Bo Bo is 12 and lives with his 80 year old uncle, U Ba, in Kalaw, Burma. He is a smart and perceptive boy. He can speak English, which sometimes gets him in trouble, because he does it better than his teachers. He also has a large scar on the left side of his face for which he has no idea how it came to be. He only sees his father once a year, and he never sees his mother. He doesn't understand any of this. So, he sets off on a journey to find out.
The characters are beautifully drawn. The love and compassion between characters is felt deeply. The history of the country is felt and experienced through the story of the past that is shared.
Small moments. Sweet moments. Would I have benefited more from Book 1 and Book 2?
August 6, 2021
3-1/2 stars. I found this third book in the trilogy just a little less satisfying than the first two, perhaps in part because I struggled to remember the details of the stories that preceded it. In The Heart Remembers, Bo Bo is twelve years old, and has been living with his uncle for several years, while his parents live together some distance away from him. He sees his father only once a year, when his uncle goes to visit his sister, Bo Bo's mother. He has not seen his mother since he was a very young child, and has almost no memory of her. After persuading his uncle that he is now old enough to learn his parents' story, Bo Bo begins to feel that his mother needs him, and that he can help her and reunite his family.
Although these characters were generally familiar from the earlier books, I found it more difficult to connect with them this time, especially with Julia, Bo Bo's mother. Clearly she suffers from some mental illness, but she remained only a vague specter, a puzzling and almost ghostly image.
Although these characters were generally familiar from the earlier books, I found it more difficult to connect with them this time, especially with Julia, Bo Bo's mother. Clearly she suffers from some mental illness, but she remained only a vague specter, a puzzling and almost ghostly image.
August 9, 2021
poor ending to a wonderful beginning...overall the series was wonderful, truly some fabulous writing as with others in series, but storyline in this segment of trilogy was lack luster and left you wanting more...
May 23, 2021
The Heart Remembers is the third novel in a series set in Burma (now Myanmar), written in German by Jan-Philipp Sendker. The first two novels in the series are The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (2012) and A Well-Tempered Heart (2014) While it is not necessary to have read these two to enjoy The Heart Remembers, I suspect the new book will send readers to them to live a while longer with these interesting characters.
Sendker, who was born in Hamburg in 1960, traveled first to Burma in 1995 as a journalist and several times later as a novelist. He was Stern’s American correspondent from 1990 to 1995 and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. His books have been translated into Burmese even though they criticized the military. For example, the military is said to have kidnapped young men and sent them into minefields as human mine detectors. “My translator at the time said that as a foreigner I had a kind of fool’s license,” says Sendker. “A local writer probably would not have been able to express himself in that way.”
While there is nothing so horrific in The Heart Remembers, the Army does confiscate a piece of land a character owns and will not sell. And it is clear that the military is a force to avoid if possible.
We follow four main characters, 12-year-old Ko Bo Bo; his uncle U Ba, who is Bo Bo’s caretaker; Bo Bo’s mother Julia Win, who is U Ba’s sister, a Burmese-American lawyer; and Bo Bo’s father Thar Thar, who is a Buddhist monk and former soldier. Bo Bo tells his part of the story in the first person; Julia’s and Thar Thar’s stories are told in the third. Bo Bo has not seen his mother in seven years; he sees his father for only a week or so once a year because Thar Thar cannot leave Julia alone for long in Yangon.
The action takes place in Kalaw, a village in central Burma interesting enough to attract foreign tourists; in New York City, where Julia has been a high-powered lawyer; and in Yangon, a large city to the south at the confluence of the Yangon and Bago Rivers (formerly Rangoon). One of the many pleasures of The Heart Remembers is the tension Thar Thar feels moving about New York City and the stress Julia feels in unsettled Burma, where she had never lived.
The book is set in the current day and twelve years earlier when the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations.
The narrative is set in action when Bo Bo discovers letters his uncle U Ba has written about his parents’ love story. He presses U Ba to tell him about Julia’s courtship with Thar Thar, a romance that unfolds against the uncertain backdrop of the Saffron Revolution, a series of mass protests in 2007, spurred by increases in fuel prices and a long history of military government rule. At the time, Thar Thar is in New York with Julia but feels he must return to Burma to participate in the revolution.
Back in the present day, Bo Bo hatches a plan to help his family by employing his acute emotional perception. He tells us, “I can tell that a person is sad even when they’re laughing. I can tell that someone is getting angry, even if they pretend that everything is fine. I can tell when rage is a mask for fear. I can sense the uneasiness behind a friendly voice. Your eyes will give you away. They can’t pretend. They can’t lie, even when they want to.” Believing he can cure his mother, Bo Bo sets off to find his parents and bring his family back together.
The Heart Remembers is smoothly translated by Kevin Wiliarty. It is an absorbing and persuasive evocation of a place and situation about which few readers will know much more than what television news has reported. In other words, almost nothing.
Sendker, who was born in Hamburg in 1960, traveled first to Burma in 1995 as a journalist and several times later as a novelist. He was Stern’s American correspondent from 1990 to 1995 and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. His books have been translated into Burmese even though they criticized the military. For example, the military is said to have kidnapped young men and sent them into minefields as human mine detectors. “My translator at the time said that as a foreigner I had a kind of fool’s license,” says Sendker. “A local writer probably would not have been able to express himself in that way.”
While there is nothing so horrific in The Heart Remembers, the Army does confiscate a piece of land a character owns and will not sell. And it is clear that the military is a force to avoid if possible.
We follow four main characters, 12-year-old Ko Bo Bo; his uncle U Ba, who is Bo Bo’s caretaker; Bo Bo’s mother Julia Win, who is U Ba’s sister, a Burmese-American lawyer; and Bo Bo’s father Thar Thar, who is a Buddhist monk and former soldier. Bo Bo tells his part of the story in the first person; Julia’s and Thar Thar’s stories are told in the third. Bo Bo has not seen his mother in seven years; he sees his father for only a week or so once a year because Thar Thar cannot leave Julia alone for long in Yangon.
The action takes place in Kalaw, a village in central Burma interesting enough to attract foreign tourists; in New York City, where Julia has been a high-powered lawyer; and in Yangon, a large city to the south at the confluence of the Yangon and Bago Rivers (formerly Rangoon). One of the many pleasures of The Heart Remembers is the tension Thar Thar feels moving about New York City and the stress Julia feels in unsettled Burma, where she had never lived.
The book is set in the current day and twelve years earlier when the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations.
The narrative is set in action when Bo Bo discovers letters his uncle U Ba has written about his parents’ love story. He presses U Ba to tell him about Julia’s courtship with Thar Thar, a romance that unfolds against the uncertain backdrop of the Saffron Revolution, a series of mass protests in 2007, spurred by increases in fuel prices and a long history of military government rule. At the time, Thar Thar is in New York with Julia but feels he must return to Burma to participate in the revolution.
Back in the present day, Bo Bo hatches a plan to help his family by employing his acute emotional perception. He tells us, “I can tell that a person is sad even when they’re laughing. I can tell that someone is getting angry, even if they pretend that everything is fine. I can tell when rage is a mask for fear. I can sense the uneasiness behind a friendly voice. Your eyes will give you away. They can’t pretend. They can’t lie, even when they want to.” Believing he can cure his mother, Bo Bo sets off to find his parents and bring his family back together.
The Heart Remembers is smoothly translated by Kevin Wiliarty. It is an absorbing and persuasive evocation of a place and situation about which few readers will know much more than what television news has reported. In other words, almost nothing.
May 11, 2020
Ik vind hem weer mooi, maar toch wel minder dan deel 1 en 2. Dat neemt niet weg dat het nog steeds een vreselijk mooie schrijfstijl is. Ik was weer in Birma en rook de gerechten. Maar op de een of andere manier kwam het verhaal niet echt binnen! Die gaat sowieso in de herkansing. Ik heb deze boeken gelezen als ebooks, maar dit soort boeken horen als papieren versie in de boekenkast!!
August 10, 2021
Perhaps reading the other two books in this series would make a difference, but I found this story
a little strange and depressing. A child should not have to hold together the fragile lives of his
parents.
a little strange and depressing. A child should not have to hold together the fragile lives of his
parents.
July 5, 2024
Det står at en kan lese de hver for seg, men anbefaler å lese alle tre i rekkefølge.
May 25, 2023
DNF, couldn’t get into it.
May 16, 2024
En unødvendig bok - men fin? Hadd holdt lenge med de to første bøkene - men fikk i hvert fall en closure 🤷🏼♀️
November 9, 2021
I’m generally not a fan of a book series, but the ‘Beloved Trilogy’ is one I’m sad to see end at just 3 books.
I fell so deeply in love with the first book, ‘The Art of Hearing Heartbeats’, that I was overjoyed to have more opportunities to sink into this family’s story.
In ‘The Heart Remembers’, the final piece, Jan-Philipp Sendker’s majestic storytelling, once again, wraps you in a warm blanket you don’t want to come out from under.
This story of multi-leveled familial love and the power of forgiveness, for oneself and others, will reach deep into your soul.
5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from start to finish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I fell so deeply in love with the first book, ‘The Art of Hearing Heartbeats’, that I was overjoyed to have more opportunities to sink into this family’s story.
In ‘The Heart Remembers’, the final piece, Jan-Philipp Sendker’s majestic storytelling, once again, wraps you in a warm blanket you don’t want to come out from under.
This story of multi-leveled familial love and the power of forgiveness, for oneself and others, will reach deep into your soul.
5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from start to finish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 23, 2021
The third book in the trilogy did not disappoint. It is a great series but I think possibly frustrating as stand alone books. The cultural insight is very interesting and the author makes one feel the difficulty of trying to immerse oneself into a different culture. Definitely things in the book that I didn’t agree with—one of those is leaving your son to be raised by your brother. I did understand the reasons and how mental illness ruled their space. Wonderful words about the power of love within the book.
September 15, 2019
4.75 Sterne. Ein guter berührender Abschluss der Burma Triologie und der Erzählung der drei Generationen. Die beiden anderen Romane haben mich etwas mehr berührt. Die Romane sind so gut geschrieben, dass man über die Seiten fliegt und leider wieder viel zu schnell damit fertig ist. Ich bin gespannt über was Sendker in Zukunft schreiben wird. In welches Land es uns führen wird.
May 31, 2021
Love all the books in this trilogy.
December 28, 2021
Lovely calm and peaceful writing. A pensive and overall sad read, but not as good as the first book in this trilogy.
May 7, 2023
The first book in the trilogy is one of my favorite that I have ever read. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is a masterpiece. The next two books were just fair-- still compelling to read and beautifully written sharing the history and culture of Burma, but not as strong as the first love story. This third book follows the child of Julia- the protagonist from book #2. It is a loving story of the relationship between Uncle and nephew- and ends the saga of the hardships that Thar Thar and Julia faced. I did not really appreciate the ending as I believe that Julia - a New York power laywer, would not have been in the situation or circumstance that she was even if plagued with illness. I do not believe that she and Thar Thar would have left their child with U Ba to raise for any reason and it was a bit disappointing even though the story comes full circle with closure, acceptance and forgiveness.
May 30, 2021
Was hoping for more...
May 26, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
March 5, 2025
Depressing. Hard to get through this one.
June 21, 2025
Nice ending to the trilogy, with a small touch of bittersweetness. As with the first two novels, it is well written, and i still really enjoy the characters.
December 4, 2025
ich liebe den schreibstil, die länge der kapitel, die inneren kämpfe, die die protagonisten mit sich haben, und die liebe, die alles heilt 🫶🏼 #cringe
July 28, 2021
Though this was not my favorite in the series, I have really enjoyed the series overall.
I think what made it lose a star is that we didn’t follow Julia as we had done in the first two books. She is definitely prevalent in the story but she is not the main focus.
The writing was beautiful as always, and I enjoyed the overall arc, but I felt like something was missing?
In the end, I really enjoyed it and I will now pick up his other series!
I think what made it lose a star is that we didn’t follow Julia as we had done in the first two books. She is definitely prevalent in the story but she is not the main focus.
The writing was beautiful as always, and I enjoyed the overall arc, but I felt like something was missing?
In the end, I really enjoyed it and I will now pick up his other series!
April 2, 2022
Bel libro e la scrittura dell'autore si riconferma scorrevole e coinvolgente dall'inizio alla fine, ma della trilogia questo è quello che mi è piaciuto meno.
Personalmente, arrivata in fondo mi è sembrato che mancasse qualcosa.
Personalmente, arrivata in fondo mi è sembrato che mancasse qualcosa.
April 29, 2025
3.95 is accurate to me.
June 5, 2023
Considering this is the 3rd and final book of the series since “The art of hearing hear bears” I will say it is good. I definitely felt the Same consistency of great story telling and keeping the reader engaged Throughout the book as with the previous two I have read. With that being said , I definitely feel like this book was lacking in the conclusion of the book. There could of been a better ending , reasonings, etc at the conclusion of the series. I feel like I was waiting for something way more than I received at the end of reading this. All together, I will say it is still a very good read considering.
May 22, 2021
See my review @FreshFiction: https://freshfiction.com/review.php?i...
May 8, 2023
A Nice enfing to a heartwarming trilogi
Displaying 1 - 30 of 203 reviews