A THOUSAND VOICES – Lisa Wingate A Perfect 10 NAL Accent (Trade Paperback) ISBN-10: 0-451-22129-X ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22129-2 July 2007 Contemporary Fiction Kansas City, Missouri, and the Kiamichi Mountains, Oklahoma - Present Day Dell Jordan was adopted when she was twelve years old, taken from a rural life to live in Kansas City. At that time, she began to live a privileged existence, music being the most important thing in her life. A scholarship to Juilliard could even be in Dell’s future, but beneath her acquired sophistication, she is troubled about who she is and where she came from. Dell often thinks about her little half-brother, Angelo, whom she hasn’t seen for many years, and remembers her troubled mother. Lately, even her music has not been the solace it has always been for her. Not wanting to hurt her adopted parents, she secretly leaves for the Kiamichi Mountains in Oklahoma, to seek her father in the Choctaw Nation. Feeling lost and uncertain, Dell stays in a campground for the night. Hearing a flute being played, she wanders over to a campsite and sees a large family of Choctaw Indians. She joins their group for food and music, and meets Shasta, her brother, Jace, and his two little children. For the first time in her life, she looks like the rest of the group with their dark hair, eyes, and skin. They treat her like one of the family, and Jace advises her on how to search for her father. A THOUSAND VOICES is the story of a young woman who always feels she doesn’t quite belong. Even though she has wonderful adopted parents, when she goes to Oklahoma, she meets people with whom she feels more at home and who calm her restless spirit. Very talented, music has always carried Dell to a good place in her psyche. There has been an underlying sadness in Dell since she was adopted that she has been unable to express. Will she find what she is searching for among the Choctaw people? Readers will get a touch of history regarding The Trail of Tears, a sad and terrible time of moving the tribes from Mississippi to Oklahoma with so many deaths along the way. Today we see the Choctaw with their wonderful community spirit and close family relationships. A delightful, heart-wrenching story written in first person with captivating characters, A THOUSAND VOICES is sensitively told and masterfully written. It will capture the imagination of readers from the first page. All of the secondary characters compliment the story, especially Jace and his sister who befriend Dell. A THOUSAND VOICES is a book not to be missed and an RRT Perfect 10. Marilyn Heyman