To the Moon and Back

Steph Harper is on the run. When she was six, her mother, Hannah, ran with Steph and her younger sister, Kayla, from an abusive husband into the arms of Cherokee Nation, where she hoped they might finally belong. But Steph soon sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.Spanning almost thirty years, and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph's turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her: her younger sister Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, and whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph's college girlfriend Della Sixkiller, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla's mother, who has held up her family's tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her kids, all the while keeping her own past a secret.In Steph's certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women, and her own understanding of herself, to the point of breaking.Told through an intricately woven constellation of narrative, 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 space for herself.