Steffi, a ninth grader living in a small Swedish town, is the target of a local bully and finds attending school a miserable experience. Yet, she loves music, specifically jazz, which also serves as her refuge. A jazz bassist, Steffi is sensitive and inquisitive, searching for people who understand and accept her. One afternoon on her walk home from school, Steffi hears jazz music coming from the window of a retirement home and decides to investigate. There she meets Alvar, a jazz musician who came of age during World War II. The two form a special friendship, with Alvar sharing stories from his youth and encouraging Steffi to audition for a music school in Stockholm. Through their friendship, Steffi sees beyond her current situation to the possibilities to come.

Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI) Book Award Honor Book 2019, Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year.

Author lives in Sweden.

Sweden. Originally published in Sweden as Hjarta av jazz by Piratforlaget in 2013. English translation by Laura A. Wideburg published in the United States by Flatiron Books in 2017.

Sara Lovestam's Wonderful Feels Like This is “a coming-of-age tale of a young artist and is as soulful as it is triumphant” (SLJ) that celebrates being a little bit odd, finding your people, and the power of music to connect us

For Steffi, going to school everyday is an exercise in survival. She's never fit in with any of the groups at school, and she's viciously teased by the other girls in her class. The only way she escapes is through her music—especially jazz music.

When Steffi hears her favorite jazz song playing through an open window of a retirement home on her walk home from school, she decides to go in and introduce herself.

The old man playing her favorite song is Alvar. When Alvar was a teenager in World War II Sweden, he dreamed of being in a real jazz band. Then and now, Alvar's escape is music—especially jazz music.

Through their unconventional but powerful friendship, Steffi comes to realize that she won't always be stuck and lonely in her town. She can go to music school in Stockholm. She can be a real musician. She can be a jitterbug, just like Alvar.

But how can Steffi convince her parents to let her go to Stockholm to audition? And how it that Steffi's school, the retirement home, the music, and even Steffi's worst bully are somehow all connected to Alvar? Can it be that the people least like us are the ones we need to help us tell our own stories?

"Sensitive and deeply moving: outstanding."
—Kirkus, starred review

"Empathy, identity, and the transformative power of music bind this tale of an atypical friendship between a teenage outcast and a jazz musician."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review