Particle Data Platform

Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club

6/16/202653 min

Oprah’s Book Club 124th selection is Little Wonder by author Sophie Chen Keller. Oprah and Sophie sit down with an enthusiastic audience of readers to discuss Sophie's childhood spent both in the USA and China and how that experience impacted her writing. She also shares how becoming a mother for the first time was the inspiration for Little Wonder. The story is about a profound bond of love that connects a mother, Song, to her son, named River. A cataclysmic roller coaster of events is set in motion when Song loses hold of River’s hand in the teeming crowds at a Beijing train station. Throughout this story of love, perseverance and hope mother and son desperately seek to find their way back to each other. Readers share that the climactic end had them in tears. Audience members also share the passages that moved them the most and ask questions of Sophie. BUY THE BOOK! https://www.amazon.com/Little-Wonder-Novel-Thousand-Voices/dp/B0G5X5Z5R9 00:00:00 - Welcome Sophie Chen Keller, author of “Little Wonder” 00:06:05 - Writing ‘Little Wonder’ 00:09:40 - How Sophie found her title 00:12:32 - Her writing process 00:14:05 - Characters and plot 00:16:10 - Writing from a boy’s perspective 00:18:00 - Sophie’s love of piano 00:19:00 - The bumpy road to ‘Little Wonder’ 00:23:50 - Why the novel was set in 2016 00:25:45 - Rewriting the book 3-4 times 00:29:50 - Motherhood in the novel 00:32:30 - Class in the novel 00:35:00 - Purpose and motherhood 00:37:50 - How Sophie relates to music 00:41:00 - Song’s grief 00:43:20 - Tchaikovsky and the story 00:45:30 - How Sophie knew the ending Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: Instagram Facebook TikTok Listen to the full podcast: Spotify Apple Podcasts #oprahsbookclub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clips

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds
  1. Sophie Chen Keller· Guest0:00

    For the first two years of my son's life, I was just completely consumed by mothering- Mm-hmm ... in the very best ways, and also in challenging ways. I was sleeping one or two hours at a time, and so I learned just how much exhaustion I could carry around.

  2. Oprah Winfrey· Host0:14

    Mm.

  3. Sophie Chen Keller· Guest0:14

    My son was an intense, sensitive baby, so he did a lot of screaming.

  4. Oprah Winfrey· Host0:20

    Oh, that's how you describe it, okay.

  5. Sophie Chen Keller· Guest0:21

    Yeah.

  6. Oprah Winfrey· Host0:21

    [laughs] [laughs] Okay. [laughs] He was intense and sensitive, yes.

  7. Sophie Chen Keller· Guest0:26

    So I just had the sense that my life no longer belonged to me. I missed my old life and my old self.

  8. Oprah Winfrey· Host0:33

    You're describing all young mothers, yes.

  9. Sophie Chen Keller· Guest0:35

    So I opened up my laptop, opened up a Word doc, and I started writing this book.

  10. Oprah Winfrey· Host0:40

    And you did so well. Hi, everybody. It's wonderful to be here with you on the Oprah Podcast. This year, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Oprah's Book Club.

  11. Speaker 30:54

    Yay.

  12. Oprah Winfrey· Host0:54

    Let's just- [cheering] [applauding] Even when you're 60. [cheering] [applauding] Uh, I'm in awe of that, all thanks to all of you who have been reading with me for now 30 years, and I think that, uh, that reading is one of the, the great joys of life. And we have many more fantastic books coming up this year. So much more to come. But it is my pleasure to share my 124th Book Club selection, Little Wonder. Little Wonder

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click "Accept All" to consent, or "Decline non-essential" to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.