Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Mitch Albom and his wife, Janine, operate.
Chika's arrival made a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delighted the other children and teachers. But at age five, Chika was diagnosed with a terminal disease that no doctor in Haiti could treat.
The couple took Chika to America, hoping treatment there would enable her to go back home. Instead, Chika became a permanent part of their lives as they embarked on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure.
As Chika's boundless optimism and humour taught Albom the joys of caring for a child, he learnt that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.
This is Albom at his most poignant, powerful and personal. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed - a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.