Jan-Philipp Sendker, born in Hamburg in 1960, and, longing to travel the world, became the American correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. In 2000 he published Cracks in the Great Wall, a nonfiction book about China. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is his first novel, and since then, he has written 3 further novels, including a sequel to "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats", "A Well-Tempered Heart". In 2013, he received The indies Choice Honor Award in the category Adult Fiction for "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. He lives in Potsdam with his family and is currently working on the third installment in his China-trilogy. http://artofhearingheartbeats.com