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Recommendations based on The Art of Hearing Heartbeatsby Jan-Philipp Sendker
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A Well-Tempered Heart
by Jan-Philipp Sendker
A woman travels to Burma to find her missing father and discovers love, loss, and the power of forgiveness.
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 ... (Goodreads)
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
A sweeping journey of two twin brothers and their search for identity, belonging and family.
The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called "Missing" in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa , in ... (Wikipedia)
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
An uplifting story of a race car driver and the bond between humans and animals.
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by ... (Goodreads)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See
Story of two women in 19th-century China, exploring the power of female friendship.
In rural Hunan province called Puwei (nicknamed the Common Beauty Village), a county in China, Lily is destined to become a, laotong, pair with Snow Flower, a girl of the same age from Tongkou (the ... (Wikipedia)
The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd
A powerful story about a girl's journey to freedom, despite the limitations of slavery.
Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now ... (Goodreads)
The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain
A woman's journey of self-discovery, navigating the complexities of a passionate and tumultuous relationship.
The Paris Wife focuses on the romance, marriage and divorce of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson, who met when Hemingway was 20 years old, and Richardson 28. They marry and move ... (Wikipedia)
The Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
A young woman's journey of healing and redemption through the power of flowers.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in ... (Goodreads)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford
A touching story of the intersection of love, family, and culture during World War II.
Henry Lee, the son of Chinese parents in Seattle , Washington, is the only Asian child at his elementary school. His father makes him wear an "I Am Chinese" button so he will not be mistaken for a ... (Wikipedia)
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
by Jim Fergus
In 1875, May Dodd and a group of women are sent to marry Cheyenne warriors. May's journal tells of her journey and the relationships she forms.
Based on an actual historical event but told through fictional diaries, this,, is the story of May Dodd—a remarkable woman who, in 1875, travels through the American West to marry the chief of the ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Space Between Us
by Thrity Umrigar
A poignant story of two women from different social classes in Mumbai, India, and their unlikely friendship that defies societal norms.
The Space Between Us takes place in present-day India and centers on two women: Serabai (Sera) Dubash, an upper-middle-class , Parsi widow, and her domestic servant of more than twenty years, Bhima. ... (Wikipedia)
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry
A gripping story of four unlikely lives intertwined in the tumult of India's caste system.
The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. ... (Wikipedia)
The Light Between Oceans
by M.L. Stedman
A lighthouse keeper and his wife make a heartbreaking decision that has lifelong repercussions.
Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, Australia, 1926. After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the lighthouse ... (Goodreads)
The Secret Keeper
by Kate Morton
A woman unravels her family's past, uncovering secrets and lies that span generations.
During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a ... (Goodreads)
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Life of an isolated bookseller is transformed when an unexpected visitor brings unexpected joy.
“Marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.”—, The Washington Post, A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his ... (Barnes & Noble)
Orphan Train
by Christina Baker Kline
A story of two women's intertwined lives, spanning generations and crossing continents.
The #1 New York Times Bestseller “A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of America’s history. Beautiful.”—Ann Packer Moving ... (Barnes & Noble)
I Know This Much Is True
by Wally Lamb
A man's journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with family trauma and understanding his identity.
The novel takes place in Three Rivers, Connecticut in the early 1990s. Dominick Birdsey's identical twin , Thomas Birdsey, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia . With medication, Thomas is able to ... (Wikipedia)
The Forgotten Garden
by Kate Morton
A woman's quest to uncover the secrets of her family's past, leading to a mysterious garden.
At Nell's joyous 21st birthday party her world falls apart when her father tells her she was adopted as a 4-year-old in 1913, seemingly abandoned on an Australian wharf and unable to remember her ... (Wikipedia)
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín
A young Irish woman's migration to America, exploring themes of identity and belonging.
Eilis Lacey is a young woman who is unable to find work in 1950s Ireland . Her older sister Rose organises a meeting with a Catholic priest called Father Flood on a visit from New York City , who ... (Wikipedia)
Moloka'i
by Alan Brennert
A young Hawaiian girl is diagnosed with leprosy and sent to live in a settlement on Moloka'i, where she learns to survive and thrive.
This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place—-and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Circling the Sun
by Paula McLain
A fictionalized account of the extraordinary life of aviator Beryl Markham.
Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl Markham is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing ... (Goodreads)
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson
An adventurous old man escapes a nursing home for an unexpected journey of self-discovery.
Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his hundredth birthday, and his retirement home in Malmköping is planning to throw a party. Allan is not interested. Instead, he climbs out the window and ... (Wikipedia)
Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See
Two sisters navigate the turmoil of 1930s Shanghai, while struggling to protect each other.
Shanghai Girls is divided into three parts: Fate, Fortune, and Destiny. Here See treats Chinese immigration from a personal view through Pearl's narration. In, On Gold Mountain, she objectively ... (Wikipedia)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
An elderly man's unexpected quest of faith, discovering the power of hope and love.
Harold Fry, 65, has cut the lawn outside his home at Kingsbridge on the south coast of Devon when he receives a letter. A colleague of twenty years ago, Queenie Hennessy, has cancer and is in a ... (Wikipedia)
Midwives
by Chris Bohjalian
A midwife's journey of self-discovery, uncovering secrets of her own past.
The time is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural community of Reddington, Vermont, for fifteen years. But one treacherous winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads ... (Goodreads)
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
A boy's search for faith, set against a backdrop of unlikely events.
The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto , Ontario , Canada and taken on ... (Wikipedia)
The Room on Rue Amelie
by Kristin Harmel
A young American woman, a British RAF pilot, and a Jewish teenager form an unlikely bond in Nazi-occupied Paris.
A moving and entrancing novel set in Paris during World War II about an American woman, a dashing pilot, and a young Jewish girl whose fates unexpectedly entwine—perfect for the fans of Kristen ... (Barnes & Noble)
Family Matters
by Rohinton Mistry
Follows the lives of the Parsi family, navigating complex relationships in Bombay.
Nariman Vakeel is a 79 year-old Parsi widower beset by Parkinson's disease and haunted by memories of the past. He lives with his two middle-aged step-children. When Nariman's illness is compounded ... (Wikipedia)
The Keeper of Lost Things
by Ruth Hogan
A story of finding solace and connection through lost memories and objects.
A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold ... (Goodreads)
The Story of Beautiful Girl
by Rachel Simon
A love story between two people with intellectual disabilities, on a journey to find home and belonging.
It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and ... (Goodreads)
Annabel
by Kathleen Winter
Born as a hermaphrodite in 1968, Wayne decides to become Annabel and struggles with identity and acceptance in a small Canadian town.
A baby is born in 1968, in far-from-everywhere Croydon Harbour, Labrador , Canada. He is intersex – a word unfamiliar to the midwife present at his birth, and to his stoic father and his fanciful ... (Wikipedia)
