“Exquisite…Little Wonder will make your heart soar.”
Little Wonder
Coming May 19, 2026
A musical prodigy and his mother spend years searching for each other in this beautiful novel of hope, perseverance, and love.
A SWEEPING NOVEL FROM JENNA BUSH HAGER’S NEW VENTURE, THOUSAND VOICES.
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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The Luster of Lost Things
Walter Lavender Jr. is a master of finding. A wearer of high-tops. A maker of croissants. A son keeping vigil, twelve years counting.
But he wouldn’t be able to tell you. Silenced by his motor speech disorder, Walter’s life gets lonely. Fortunately, he has The Lavenders—his mother’s enchanted dessert shop, where marzipan dragons breathe actual fire. He also has a knack for tracking down any missing thing—except for his lost father.
So when the Book at the root of the bakery’s magic vanishes, Walter, accompanied by his overweight golden retriever, journeys through New York City to find it—along the way encountering an unforgettable cast of lost souls.
Steeped in nostalgic wonder, The Luster of Lost Things explores the depths of our capacity for kindness and our ability to heal. A lyrical meditation on why we become lost and how we are found, from the bright, broken heart of a boy who knows where to look for everyone but himself.
About Sophie
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.
Contact
Literary Agent
Sophie is represented by Michelle Brower at Trellis Literary Management.
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Sophie Chen Keller 