NEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey's latest book club pick also has the blessing of a second literary tastemaker, Jenna Bush Hager.
Winfrey announced Tuesday that she had selected Sophie Chen Keller's “Little Wonder,” which has just been published. Keller's novel was released by Hager's Thousand Voices imprint, in partnership with Penguin Random House. Set in China, “Little Wonder” is the story of a food delivery worker and her gifted son, a musical prodigy who gets lost in Beijing.
“I was riveted in hopeful anticipation of the outcome of this unforgettable journey of a mother and her son,” Winfrey said in a statement. “Harrowing experiences and unexpected kindnesses make this a novel to remember.”
Winfrey's podcast interview with Keller can be viewed on the Oprah YouTube Channel and other podcast outlets. Hager, the “Today” show co-host and founder of the “Read With Jenna” book club, not only published “Little Wonder” but sent an early copy to Winfrey and facilitated the phone call during which Winfrey informed the author of her decision.
“Getting the call from Oprah was an astonishing dream come true,” Keller said in a statement. “I’m still reeling in disbelief. But if I could go back in time and tell the little girl curled up with her mom, reading bedtime stories, that one day Oprah would read her story and choose it for her book club, the little girl would believe it — because she knew the world was magic.”
Keller, a native of China raised in California, lives in Germany with her husband and two children. She is also the author of “The Luster of Lost Things,” a novel published in 2017.
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