Little Wonder: A Novel

"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"--