I was really blown away by Jan-Philipp Sender's first novel entitled The Art Of Hearing Heartbeats and consequently, began the sequel with high expectations. Unfortunately, as often happens when you expect too much, you're in for a letdown. The Well Tempered Heart did shine inn many aspects. It turned into a surprisingly poignant love story and, like the the first novel, it wonderfully depicted the main characters search for inner peace. Where I felt it didn't measure up to the first novel was the way in which Julie went to Burma in the first place. This time it was not the disappearance of her Burmese born father. No, instead this time she was hearing voices in her head. Now, obviously Sender needed to get Julie back to Burma to continue the story, but I just felt that having the character hear voices in her head was too cliché. Surely, the author could have come up with something more clever than that old trick. ( )

Not as engaging as the first book. Predictable. ( )

"The art of being where you are." ( )

In “The Art of Hearing Heartbeats,” Jan-Phillip Sendker tells of a man who not only hears heartbeats but can distinguish one heartbeat from another from across the room. In a sequel, “A Well-Tempered Heart” (2012), he writes about a 38-year-old woman, the man's daughter, who hears a voice nobody else can hear. And like her father, Julia must travel to Burma to find answers.

Julia is a prominent attorney in New York City who can no longer focus on her work. That voice she alone can hear keeps asking her questions and giving her advice. “Who are you?” “What do these men want from you?” “Be on your guard.” Forced to take a leave of absence, she decides to visit her half-brother in Burma, a mystical man named U Ba. Perhaps he can help silence the desperate woman's voice within her.

Sendker diverts to another story in the middle part of the novel, a story about a Burmese woman and her two sons in a time of war. This apparent diversion, of course, is really another part of the same story, the explanation of Julia's mysterious voice.

The novel becomes a love story by its end, a story about love in its many dimensions.

Sendker writes with a lyrical and mystical quality that will appeal to some readers, while turning off others. I find myself somewhere in the middle. ( )

I was so disgusted with what happens in part three of this book that I put it down. I really wanted to love it, because I loved the first one, also set in Burma, so very richly drawn. I give it three stars for the writing (and translation). Both truly wonderful.

Spoilers coming.

What pisses me off about Julia is what pisses me off about Katniss Everdeen. Neither has a shred of agency. Things just happen to Julia and she just shrugs and says "huh. Ok." She is too shallow of a character to deserve someone so well-imagined as Thar Thar. Clearly the only soulful characters in Sendker's world live in Burma. He should have stuck with that.

If those of you who finished it tell me that Julia grows in elegance and humility (and self-awareness) by the end, I'll pick it back up. ( )