Set in Burma, THE HEART REMEMBERS is a story about love.  Not the mushy, romantic kind of love, but rather love that runs deep and is not always readily apparent or easy to understand.

Bo Bo is a 12-year-old boy who lives with his uncle U Ba in Kalaw. Bo Bo is not an orphan.  He has both a father and a mother, but he doesn’t live with them and he is not sure the reasons why.  His uncle has never been very forthcoming with information about his parents, and Bo Bo knows not to push him.  Lately, U Ba has been talking more about Bo Bo’s mother.  This worries Bo Bo to some extent because he knows U Ba is getting old and that he is not in the best of health.  When Bo Bo discovers some notes that U Ba has been writing late at night, he realizes there is much more to his younger life than he ever contemplated, and that things are often more complicated than they appear on the surface.

I very much enjoyed the setting of THE HEART REMEMBERS.  Though I am an avid reader, I have never before read a book set in Burma.  The cultural references were enlightening and very well done.  I also loved seeing New York from the eyes of a foreigner.

I would not call this book light reading.  Though the words themselves are not complicated, the plot is very much so.  I felt the pain of each of the main characters as the story unfolds.  I also visualized the love between the characters and felt their desire to express that love even when they found it impossible to do so.

This book is the third in a series.  I have not read the previous two books, but I never felt as if I were missing any information essential to the plot.  However, after having read THE HEART REMEMBERS I have a desire to now read the two previous books in the series.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning about other cultures and reading books that take an in-depth look at some of the choices one makes out of love.  Although there are a few instances of profanity in this book, it is otherwise a clean read.