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A Well-Tempered Heart cover art

A Well-Tempered Heart

By: Jan-Philipp Sendker
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
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Summary

The sequel to the international bestselling 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 recently left her, she has suffered a miscarriage, 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.

©2014 Jan-Philipp Sendker (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"An absorbing, moving sequel." ( Booklist)
"Sendker [is] a mesmerizing storyteller." ( Kirkus Reviews)

What listeners say about A Well-Tempered Heart

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Beautiful story

I was completely emersion in this beautiful story. Such skilled atmospheric writing and lovely narration.

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Beautiful

What a great story. I enjoyed listening to it. I can highly recommend it. Thank you!

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Tender and touching.

I feel that sometimes a story interests, draws and ultimately engages one, depending of how you feel and where you are in life at that moment. For me it was just right and I loved it.

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A well tempered heart was a wonderful book

This is a beautifully written, will read book, combining mysticism with history, love, with hate, beauty, with ugliness, and a genuine sense of what it might of been like in Burma at the time of the book was written. The story of the two brothers was fascinating and totally unexpected. So many different stories are interwoven all come together. It was very satisfying to spend time with this book. I especially like the way it was read.

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A bit thin

Having loved The Art of Hearing Heartbeats I found this sequel less enthralling. Maybe the narrator‘s flat delivery had something to do with it; I’m not sure but I find myself rather disappointed

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I just wish I had the patience

Would you try another book written by Jan-Philipp Sendker or narrated by Cassandra Campbell?

I loved the prequel to this story and read it in the traditional way (ie hard copy book). The story was beautifully written, endearing and a lovely change to the hustle and bustle of every day life. I lost myself in the story and felt very peaceful every time I read it. As I'm a commuter, I thought I'd try the next book via audiobook but try as I might, I just couldn't get past the narrator's irritating and ingratiating voice. I can only assume that as the book is such a lovely but somewhat calmly written story, the narrator decided to read it in a kind of breathy, whimsical way which only served to annoy me. There were long breaks in the narrative which were wholly unnecessary and I guess were only used to set the 'mood' but the only mood it generated was a bad one! I tried to get past this by perseverance but despite going for over two hours, I just found the only thing the irksome voice was doing was ruining the story for me. The voice just didn't sit with the characters and made them all sound just that little bit pathetic rather than the strong, independent person that the lead character was, albeit someone who is feeling a little lost along the way.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I've started reading the book and it's alot better.

Any additional comments?

I actually really hate writing bad reviews as I feel it is unfair and can be taken personally which isn't my intention. I would be happy to try another book that the narrator has read but this time, it just didn't work and it didn't work badly.

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