An expansive, big-hearted novel about a young woman whose quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut irrevocably alters the fates of the people she loves most.
A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK | A LITHUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 | AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2025
The astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel about a young woman whose quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut irrevocably alters the fates of the people she loves most.
‘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
‘A powerful story about the mixture of combativeness, compromise and love that forms the heart of a family.’ Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time
Steph Harper is on the run.
When she was five, her mother ran – with Steph and her younger sister in tow – from an abusive husband into the arms of a small Cherokee community, where she hoped they might finally belong.
But Steph soon sets her sights as far away as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing interfere with her dream to become an astronaut, and ultimately, to go to the moon.
In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with the three women who know and love her most dearly: her younger sister Kayla, an artist whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; her college girlfriend Della, who strives to reclaim 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 her family’s history as a beacon of inspiration to her kids, all the while keeping the truth about her own past a secret.
Told through these women’s interwoven lives, and spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths one woman will go to find a little space for herself.
Praise for To The Moon and Back
A singular, sonorous, wholehearted novel, one I wanted to devour and savour at once.’ Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
‘A brilliant, faceted, warm-hearted novel, with characters to love and truly root for, and pages that seem to turn themselves.’ Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of the National Book Award Finalist All This Could Be Different
‘A captivating debut about family, queer identity, love, career and heritage. This novel has something for everyone.’ De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills
‘A soaring masterpiece… Every character in this novel will stay with you forever. I love this book.’ Casey Plett, author of A Dream of a Woman
‘A passionate and compulsively readable novel. Dare I say, a stellar debut.’ Margot Livesey, author of The Road to Belhaven
About the Author
Eliana Ramage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she lives in Nashville with her family. To the Moon and Back is her first novel.
Industry Reviews
A novel that has the generosity to be many things - bittersweet, thrillingly perceptive, multi-threaded, enormously funny. To the Moon and Back is a wonderful book about a Cherokee Nation woman who, over several decades, brings herself to reckon with the true price of her at-any-cost ambition to become an astronaut; and a powerful story about the mixture of combativeness, compromise and love that forms the heart of a family.
-Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time
To the Moon and Back is a passionate and compulsively readable novel. Dare I say, a stellar debut.
-Margot Livesey, author of The Road to Belhaven
Eliana Ramage's To the Moon and Back is a captivating debut about family, queer identity, love, career and heritage. This novel has something for everyone.
-De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills
To the Moon and Back is a singular, sonorous, wholehearted novel, one I wanted to devour and savor at once. Eliana Ramage is a dynamite writer — every sentence positively shimmers.
-Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was
Ramage will break your heart and take you to the stars. From painfully accurate depictions of adolescence, to effortless jumps through time and space – I loved it all.
-Kiley Reid, author of Such A Fun Age
To The Moon and Back simply soars. Eliana Ramage has given us a brilliant, faceted, warm-hearted novel, with characters to love and truly root for, and pages that seem to turn themselves.
-Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of the National Book Award Finalist All This Could Be Different
This author is as ambitious as her protagonist: there are three novels worth of material here, all good. The moon or bust!
-Kirkus Reviews
A story of decisions; right, wrong and everything in between, To the Moon and Back explores love and ambition and all its complicated messiness. With characters so perfectly rendered that you’ll want to hug them or give them a shake, Eliana Ramage explores what it means to belong in this immersive and exciting debut.
-Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers
A soaring masterpiece that mixes the terror, care, betrayal, and death-defying love of family with deliciously abject lesbian drama and the beautifully self-destructive doggedness of possessing a singular dream. Every character in this novel will stay with you forever. I love this book.
-Casey Plett, author of A Dream of a Woman
Any story about somebody who wants to be an astronaut is bound to get my attention, but Ramage’s debut is a special one. It’s epic in scope, jumping across several decades and hopping the globe, but it never loses sight of the family story at its core and the Indigenous identities of its heroine Steph and her nearest and dearest. It’s a family novel, it’s an ambition novel, it is a novel that (you guessed it) shoots for the moon and makes it back safely to boot.
-LitHub Most Anticipated
Ambitious and big-hearted
-the Millions
Ramage's incandescent debut novel is the story of Steph Harper, who has a singular focus, to become the first Cherokee astronaut… Wondrous and deeply moving, Ramage's first outing explores ambition, sexuality, and familial bonds with sensitivity and piercing insight. Not to be missed.
-Booklist, starred review
A powerful, resonant debut novel.
-People Magazine
A sprawling, multi-generational saga on kinship, queer identity and ambition... big in ambition, bold, funny
-Jhalak Review
An epic, enthralling and deeply humane novel of family bonds, belonging and the relentless pursuit of one's dream, that will make you laugh and cry along the way. Eliana Ramage is a formidable talent, and writes with so much heart and hope: I loved it.
-Ceclie Pin, author of Wandering Souls
