The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

For me, one of the biggest benefits in being in a book group is that sometimes a member reads a relatively unknown book and wants to share it with us.  I had never heard of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, and if someone had told me what it's about, I doubt I would have picked it up.  But it has a magical quality that I really enjoyed.  It takes place in Burma, and we meet a cast of characters that are intriguing.  The book's narrator is a woman who is looking for her father who mysteriously disappeared from their New York home.  She finds hints that he has returned to Burma where he grew up in search of a woman named MiMi.  The book then switches back to her father's childhood and we learn about his life and his relationship with MiMi.  There's a strong fantasy/mystical level to the book, and you can't read it looking for logic.  For example, Tin Win (the narrator's father) is blind as a child, and has supernatural hearing where he can hear the heartbeats of the people around him as well as find his way easily by hearing familiar sounds.  It's a slow-moving book but I enjoyed the ride. -June