The Language of Solitude

The Language of Solitude

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

This "vivid, fascinating, and haunting look at today's China" (Library Journal, starred review) and highly anticipated sequel to the "darkly beautiful, heart-wrenching" (Booklist) Whispering Shadows features a brooding German-American expat who is struggling to begin a new life—only to find himself embroiled in an investigation that could have dangerous environmental and personal consequences.Paul Leibovitz is determined to turn over a new leaf in Hong Kong and find peace after the death of his son. He believes that his love for Christine Wu will bring him the joy he desperately needs—but things change when Christine gets an unexpected letter from Da Long, the brother she hasn't seen in forty years, urging her to visit him in his remote village outside of Shanghai. Paul is compelled to travel with her, knowing full well that the mainland, with all of its menacing secrets, terrifies her. After an awkward reunion with her brother,...
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A Well-Tempered Heart

A Well-Tempered Heart

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

The sequel to the international best-selling novel The Art of Hearing Heartbeats.  * Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend has recently left her and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted. One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger’s voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation. In the following days, her crisis only deepens. Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid. Why do you live alone? To whom do you feel close? What do you want in life? Interwoven with Julia’s story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her two young sons to be child soldiers. This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats*, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart.
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The Far Side of the Night

The Far Side of the Night

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

During a trip to China, Paul and Christine experience the nightmare of every parent: their four year old son is threatened with kidnap. The only safe place for the family is the US embassy in Beijing, but they are two thousand miles away, with the police searching frantically for them, and all airports, train stations and major roads under surveillance. They'll have no chance without help from strangers, but who will be willing to risk their lives for them?Suspenseful and rife with the page-turning storytelling that has come to define Sendker's work, Far Side of the Night is a brilliant and timely thriller that offers a penetrating look into contemporary China.
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The Heart Remembers

The Heart Remembers

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

The highly anticipated final book in the internationally bestselling The Art of Hearing Heartbeats trilogy, a moving story about love's power to transcend distances and heal seemingly irreparable wounds. 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...
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The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.
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The Rebel and the Thief

The Rebel and the Thief

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

From the internationally bestselling author of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, a moving tale of forbidden love and extraordinary courage in the face of disaster. Eighteen-year-old Niri and his family live a modest but secure life working in the villa of the wealthy Benzes. But when the pandemic comes, they are all let go, and left staring into the abyss of abject poverty. As their situation grows increasingly desperate, the once rule-abiding monastery student decides he won’t wait at the mercy of a corrupt, indifferent government, and rebels against his father’s resigned acceptance.            Sneaking through the locked-down city at night, past the military patrols, Niri returns to the villa to take what his family needs to survive. Waiting for him there is his childhood friend—and the Benzes’ daughter—Mary, who has a bigger plan that will change their lives forever.A...
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Whispering Shadows

Whispering Shadows

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

The first in a suspenseful new trilogy by the internationally bestselling author of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, this gripping story follows a retired expat journalist in contemporary China who tries to crack a murder case as he battles his own personal demons. American expat Paul Leibovitz was once an ambitious advisor, dedicated father, and loving husband. But after living for nearly thirty years in Hong Kong, personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout. Now Paul is living as a recluse on an outlying island of Hong Kong. When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than twenty-four hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead in Shenzhen, and Paul, invigorated by a newfound purpose, sets out to investigate the murder on his own. As Paul, Elizabeth, and a detective friend descend deeper into the Shenzhen underworld—against the wishes of a woman with whom Paul has had a flirtation—they discover dark secrets hidden beneath China’s booming new wealth. In a country where rich businessmen with expensive degrees can corrupt the judicial system, the potential for evil abounds. Part love story, part crime thriller, Whispering Shadows is the captivating tale of one man’s desperate search for redemption within the vice of a world superpower, a place where secrets from the past threaten to upend the country’s unchecked drive towards modernization.
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Dragon Games

Dragon Games

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

Hong Kong. American journalist Paul and his Chinese girlfriend face a crisis. A troubling letter arrives from mainland China from Christine's long lost brother and they feel compelled to come to his rescue. There they find a village in turmoil and her brother's life in disarray. Their dangerous quest for justice begins in twenty-first century China beset by corrupt politicians and ruthless business interests, where citizens, still in the long shadow of the Cultural Revolution have few rights in the face of an all-powerful system. Sendker's world is rich and intense: his books weave together love story and crime thriller, the wisdom of Confucius and the thoughts of Mao, between the emotive West and the fatalistic, philosophical East. And above all a sense of deep, honest faith in the human spirit.
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The Long Path to Wisdom

The Long Path to Wisdom

Jan-Philipp Sendker

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction

From the author of the internationally bestselling Art of Hearing Heartbeats series, a charming collection of folktales that offer a window into Burma's fascinating history and culture.Since 1995 Jan-Philipp Sendker has visited Myanmar (Burma) dozens of times, and while doing research for his novels The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and A Well-Tempered Heart, he encountered numerous fairy tales and fables. These moving stories speak to the rich mythology of the diverse peoples of Burma, the spirituality of humankind, and the profound social impact Buddhist thinking has had over centuries. Some are so strange he couldn't classify them or identify a familiar moral, while others reminded him of the fairy tales of his childhood, except that here monkeys, tigers, elephants, and crocodiles inhabited the fantastic lands instead of hedgehogs, donkeys, or geese. The teachings they convey resemble those of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen,...
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