“The Art of Hearing a Heartbeat” is the debut novel by the German journalist Jan-Philipp Sendker.
Julia Vinn’s father is truly a mysterious person. On the one hand, he is a brilliant American lawyer and a respectable family man; on the other, a man whose past is shrouded in darkness. Neither his wife nor his adult children know almost anything about him. So when Mr. Vinn one day disappears, the police and the family have no idea where to look for him. The only clue is a letter the daughter finds four years after her father’s disappearance. It is a love message to a woman named Mi Mi, who lives far away—on the other side of the ocean. Julia sets off on a long journey into the unknown, where she will have to learn a very difficult art—to hear the heartbeat of other people.