Little Wonder: A Novel (Thousand Voices) by Sophie Chen Keller

 

Song is a nobody—just a food delivery worker from a village in Northeastern China—but her son, River, is a little wonder.

At the age of four, he toddled to a piano and tapped out his favorite song. At eight, he mastered Liszt's three Liebestraume; at ten, he blazed through the complete set of Chopin's études. And at every step, through the valleys of loss, illness, and poverty, Song is there to light his way—until finally, at the age of eleven, River is invited to study with a preeminent teacher in Beijing.

But in the chaos of Beijing Railway Station on the busiest day of the year, Song faces every mother's nightmare: She loses her grip on River’s little hand and is unable to find him after a desperate, harrowing search.

Over the next days, weeks, and eventually, years, Song and River fight to forge a path back to each other as they carve out new lives that carry them farther apart. An evocative exploration of a mother’s love and a son’s yearning, Little Wonder takes us on an extraordinary journey through a modern Beijing that pulses with the music of humanity and its impossible—and impossibly brave—hopes.

As every musician knows: You start in one key. You wander to other keys, strange and distant places. But in the end, you always come back home.

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About The Author

Sophie Chen Keller is the author of LITTLE WONDER and THE LUSTER OF LOST THINGS, which was also released in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Her first publication came at the age of fifteen, with a short story in Glimmer Train literary magazine. A classically trained pianist, she was born in China and raised in California; after graduating from Harvard, she lived in New York City and Beijing before moving to Germany, where she currently resides with her husband and two children.

 

My Review

This read had me with my heart in my throat. The catalyst was loosing a child, a mother's worst nightmare came to pass, and with the population in this city, Beijing, how could you find one child? If you can imagine all that could possibly go wrong, it happened.
This a story of family, and of course the Chinese culture. In the beginning, all living together, but in the end mother and child, until it all comes apart.
I loved how River saw music as colors, and how he masters this beautiful gift, and how the author puts him in the right place at the right time. The kindness of people, and some at their worse, but will good prevail?
Was the ending how I would have liked it, probably not, but it is life! I was page turning for answers here, and hoping for the best!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Ballantine, and was not required to give a positive review.