Hear the heart

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Hear the Hearts is the first novel by the German writer and journalist Jan-Philipp Sendker . The novel was published in 2002. It was continued in 2012 with voices of the heart .

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Julia Win lives in New York . Her mother comes from a wealthy family, her father is a successful lawyer . His clients include many Hollywood - Stars and producers. According to Julia, his success is probably due to his calm, courteous manner, his photographic memory and his very good knowledge of human nature. For her it often seems as if her father collects himself briefly before client appointments, listens to himself, and then instinctively assesses the person correctly.

Julia finished her law degree. She celebrates with her parents and brother and, as an exception, stays with her parents again. In the morning, her father says goodbye, supposedly because he has an important appointment in Boston . But he never gets there. The police involved determined the travel route of her father - he flew to Thailand via detours . His ID is found in Bangkok and his trail is lost there.

The investigating policeman was bothered by the fact that his own family did not pretend to know anything about the successful attorney's past. Julia's mother really didn't know anything about the first 20 years of her husband's life either. The investigations remain unsuccessful. Tin Win remains missing.

Julia later received various personal items from her father from her mother. Among them was a love letter from 1955 to an unknown woman named Mi Mi. This showed that her father and the recipient had not seen each other for 16 years (5,864 days) and an address in Kalaw, Burma . The 27-year-old Julia spontaneously decides to look for her father, who has been missing for 4 years, and flies to the address. Shortly before, she had a conversation with her mother. She confessed that she wanted to marry Tin Win, even though he never really wanted to. And she knew that she was never really in his heart because it already belonged to someone else. At the beginning of their marriage, she thought that she could surely win the young Asian's love, but over time she realized that this would never be the case. With this marriage, she rebelled against her conservative parents for the only time and had to pay a heavy price for it.

Julia arrived in the small village in Burma. There she was approached by an old man. She initially suspected that he was between the ages of 70 and 80, but as it turned out later, he was only in his 50s. He introduced himself as U Ba and already knew her name, and also the favorite fairy tale that her father told her always read aloud. The fairy tale of the prince, princess and crocodile. This was about the heir to the throne of two kingdoms that were separated by a river. The prince could only visit his princess with the help of a crocodile. But the other crocodiles disapproved and threatened the prince. His reptilian friend protected him in his throat, but the escape from the other reptiles took too long, the prince suffocated in the throat of his friend. The princess died of grief shortly afterwards. The funerals took place at the same time, and both were burned. Suddenly the animals began to sing. Both columns of smoke rose up into the sky and merged into a single column of smoke. It wasn't a happy ending for Julia's mother, but it was for her father.

At first Julia was very cautious, but U Ba slowly won the young woman's trust with his educated manner (which did not match his physical appearance). U Ba told her the story of her father, the first 20 years of his life.

When Tin Win was born, his mother Mya Mya - who had to witness the death of her twin brother at the age of five - had no true love for him. She never felt close to her own child. This was also confirmed by an astrologer - because although he recognized the boy's great talent and also his great ability to love, he knew that the parents would not understand this. So he just said the boy was "very worried". Tin Win's mother took it as a curse, but his father took it more loosely. But when he died in an accident, the young mother left her six-year-old son. Since she told Tin Win that she would be back soon, he waited for her on a tree stump - until he almost starved to death.

Tin Win was raised by a neighbor who also took care of the rest of the upbringing. Because Tin Win's mother's job was to look after a relative's flagship luxury home. This relative never showed up, but there was still a lot of work to be done here. So Su Kyi took care of the boy and the caretaker job. Tin Win was a quiet child. But at the age of ten the boy suddenly went blind. Su Kyi brought the boy to the monastery to the monk U May, who was also blind. Here the boy learned to live with his handicap . But he never became a real part of the monastery, he was far too much of a loner for that. But he discovered that he had the gift of hearing.

One day he heard a loud knocking noise in the monastery. As it turned out, this was Mi Mi's heartbeat, he heard her heart beating. She wasn't blind, but she had two deformed feet and could not walk. The two fell in love very quickly. She was his eyes - and he was her legs. Together they conquered the world. They were made for one another. And somehow it was clear to both of them that they wanted to get married and grow old together.

But their fate was different. After four years, the wealthy relative, whose house Su Kyi was now taking care of, was prophesied by an astrologer that he absolutely had to look after a relative in order to avert great disaster. The only thing that occurred to the uncle was Tin Win. After a stormy farewell (Wed Wed / Tin Win), he had him brought to the capital. There Tin Win was cured of cataracts after eight years without eyesight. The uncle was so enthusiastic about the boy's calm and intelligent manner that he never let him go. He sent him to St. Paul High School and then to America to study. Tin Win and Mi Mi wrote each other letters every day, but their uncle had them all intercepted. Still, the love between the two was not tarnished. After successfully completing his studies, Tin Win was to become his uncle's partner and get married richly. There was no “no” for Tin Win due to the mentality and tradition in Burma. After the Second World War , however, the uncle lost luck and money. Tin Win could therefore stay in America. His plan was probably to wait for his uncle to die and then finally get back to his Wed Wed. But three months before uncle's death, Julia was born herself. Tin Win now had a family of his own, obligations of his own that held him back from his love.

One day he realized that his Mi Mi was dying and - after more than 50 years - he finally went to see her. Mi Mi waited with last strength for his return. When he was finally with her, he took her in his arms - and they both fell asleep together. They died together that night, arm in arm. “He came in time. The villagers recognized this great love and celebrated the funeral accordingly. Mi Mi, who enjoyed a high reputation during her lifetime for her goodness, her beauty - and her good hand-rolled cigars / "cheroots" - was given a great honor. Both were burned in the cemetery. And as in Julia's favorite fairy tale, the two columns of smoke combined into one - and even the animals sang. Since then, this day has been celebrated every month by the villagers as a love festival.

When she visited U Ba, he was doing his favorite pastime; he restored books that couldn't cope with the humid climate (and the vermin and worms) of Burma. She learned that U Ba would also have had the opportunity to study in the West. He would have already received a scholarship. But when his mother fell ill, he stopped studying and looked after his mother, who was still very old.

Julia saw photos of Wed Wed. There was always a little boy in the picture who could also be seen in later pictures. She recognized U Ba in him. And then she discovered similarities between her father and the old local. U Ba was her half-brother. On her trip to Burma, Julia learned the story of her father, got a half-brother - and above all the gift of understanding the power of love. The love between Tin Win and Mi Mi.

people

  • Julia Win: Daughter from a good family, looking for her father
  • U Ba: Julia's half-brother, son of Tin Win and Mi Mi
  • Francesco Lauria: Head of the special commission that was looking for Tin Win
  • Tin Win: Julia's father came to the United States from Burma in 1942 on a student visa
  • Mya Mya: Tin Win's mother
  • Khin Maung: Tin Win's father
  • Su Kyi: the neighbor's sister, took care of Tin Win when his mother left him
  • U May: a blind monk
  • Ma Mu: the daughter of a cook, the great love of U May (who died a wicked, ironic death when U May was looking for her)
  • Wed Wed: Tin Wins great love
  • Yadana: Mi Mi's mother
  • Moe: Mi Mi's father
  • U Saw: Tin Win's rich uncle
  • Hla Taw: one of U Saw's house servants
  • Dr. McCrae: operates on Tin Win's cataracts

Reviews

  • "In his first novel" Das Herzenhren "Jan-Philipp Sendker succeeds in describing the feelings of both men and women with a high degree of sensitivity and in developing an impressive plea for trust and love, without ever falling into kitsch or sentimentality to slide off. "( DeutschlandRadio )
  • “'Das Herzenherd' is brilliantly told, almost poetic - without even running the risk of drifting into kitsch. Read! "( Augsburger Allgemeine )

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report on a reading in Günzburg , accessed on March 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ "It is risky to continue a bestseller" - Books.ch ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF, accessed March 9, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.books.ch
  3. ↑ Disappeared in China (last paragraph) , accessed March 9, 2014