To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage

A coming-of-age novel about a young woman whose quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut changes the lives of the women who love her most.

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2025.

Steph Harper is on the run.

When she was five, her mother ran with Steph and her younger sister from an abusive husband into the arms of a small Cherokee community, where she hoped they might finally belong.

Steph soon sets her sights as far away from there as she can get. She vows that nothing will stand in the way of her dream to become an astronaut and, eventually, to go to the moon.

In her certainty that only ambition can save her, Steph stretches her bonds with the three women who know and love her most. Her younger sister Kayla, an artist whose determination to appear good takes her life in unexpected directions. Her college girlfriend Della, who is reclaiming her identity as an adult after being removed from her family as a young girl through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act. And her mother Hannah, who has held up the family's history as a beacon for her daughters while keeping the truth about her own past a secret.

Spanning three decades and several continents, told through these four women's interwoven lives, To the Moon and Back is a novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and wonder. At its heart, it's the story of the extraordinary lengths one woman will go to find a little space for herself.

"Will break your heart and take you to the stars. I loved it." Kiley Reid, bestselling author of Such a Fun Age

"A breathtaking debut about family, identity, and love across generations." Reese Witherspoon