TO THE MOON AND BACK

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.

“A powerful, resonant debut.” —People 

“If ambition is rocket fuel, Steph [Harper] has a full tank.” —Oprah Daily

“Ramage stuffs the book to the brim with big ideas and digressions, from indigenous history to family identity, but it is the eminently human voice of Steph that keeps this maiden voyage feeling grounded and real.” —NPR

“A queer coming-of-age story, a Native family drama, Ramage’s tragicomic debut shoots for the stars.” —The Boston Globe

“A story of decisions; right, wrong and everything in between, with characters so perfectly rendered that you’ll want to hug them or give them a shake. An immersive and exciting debut.” —Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers

“A novel that has the generosity to be many things—bittersweet, thrillingly perceptive, enormously funny. To the Moon and Back is a wonderful reckoning with the true price of an at-any-cost ambition and a powerful story about the mixture of combativeness, compromise and love that forms the heart of a family.” —Kaliane Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of The Ministry of Time

1. Early in the novel, Steph’s father says, “I’m trying to protect you … you gotta run before that, Steph. To the moon and back, if you’ve gotta” (p 12). Given that Hannah left him to die due to his abuse of their family, what does it mean to you that the book’s title comes from him? How does the idea of protection coming from such a flawed source shape Steph’s choices? By the end of the book, how has the idea of him, and his impact on her, changed?

2. On page 144, Della reflects on the idea of “choice”: “I could be happy with other things, I now knew.… I had filled in yet more of the details of that shadow life we carry alongside us, the choices we could have made.… I had choices. This was the part of my life that I got to choose…” What choices stood out to you the most among the characters? Which ones did you question, admire, or judge? How do the characters live with the paths they didn’t take?

3. Ambition drives many of the characters in different, and sometimes conflicting, ways. Nadia considers the life sacrifices she and other astronauts make for their ambitious field. Which character’s ambition did you connect with most? Whose ambition unsettled you?

4. At Hollis, many of the characters grapple with the pull between personal dreams and a sense of responsibility to family or ancestry. How does their vision of the future (personal or collective) impact their decisions, even when they understand the sacrifices? Were you surprised by their earnestness at such a young age?

5. Throughout the novel, many characters are interested in the need to be seen, known, or impressive. There is often jealousy, frustration or competition expressed in response to others’ success. Kayla appears on the cover of the New York Times and becomes an influencer, even when her content has questionable impact. Steph is determined to become an astronaut and escape Earth. Della wants to see more of life, especially the ocean, and to prove to Steph, even as adults, that what she has accomplished matters. There’s a shared desire in these characters to prove something – sometimes to the world, sometimes to someone specific, and sometimes to themselves.

Why do you think so many characters in this book feel pressure to be more than just “regular” people? Is it youth? Is it their upbringing? What does the novel suggest about visibility, worth and ambition? How do those desires shape a person’s identity?

6. Female relationships between sisters, mothers and daughters, friends, coworkers, and partners are at the heart of this novel. Why does the author place such importance on who women trust and feel safe with? How do trust and ambition intersect in these relationships? In what ways does safety influence how the women confide in – or distance themselves from – each other?

7. Steph, Kayla, and Della are Cherokee, and themes of cultural identity, heritage, and preservation are woven throughout their stories. Steph is focused on the future (space exploration, survival of the human race), while Kayla is focused on what is being lost in the present (Cherokee land, language, and culture).

How do their differing priorities reflect their identities and beliefs? How does their shared heritage influence their relationships and their sense of purpose? Why is ancestral connection so important for characters like Kayla and Della?

8. Steph avoids spending too much time exploring her cultural and religious identity until she’s forced to confront what she’s lost or left behind. Why is Steph more hesitant to explore her roots? What makes it hard for her to reconnect? How do other characters influence how she sees herself?

9. The novel explores nontraditional families, chosen families, and evolving ideas of belonging. For Della, how to have children is a constant concern. Steph, meanwhile, struggles generally with fitting in, forming connections, and feeling a sense of home. How and why does that change for her as she grows up? What does the novel say to you about what it means to “belong”?

10. Several characters disappear and return later in the story, like Della, Sam, Brett, Beth, and even the mail carrier who once delivered Steph’s acceptance letter. How do these reappearances connect the timelines? How did their bittersweet returns shape your sense of closure, especially around Hannah’s death and funeral?

11. Hope is a powerful theme throughout this novel. Hannah hopes for a better future for her daughters, even if it means making painful choices. Della, shaped by her strict Mormon upbringing and disconnection from her Cherokee roots, hopes for freedom and family. Steph hopes for a life in space. How does hope shape each character’s choices and relationships? What do their hopes reveal about how we might imagine their futures after the book ends?

A letter from the author, originally published on Reese’s Book Club:

Dear Reader,

This book began in my first year of college. Back home, my sense of who I was had been shaped by the daily presence of the people I loved and the stories they’d passed down to me. It’s easy to know who you are, I thought, and where you come from, when your childhood bedroom was shared with a beloved grandmother. But then what?

One day, I was sitting in a classroom with a group of fellow Native students. We were all from different tribal nations, but the conversation kept returning to our people and the ways they’d lived in the past. For me, when I thought about Cherokee identity, I couldn’t help but base it in a foundational story I’d been told as a child: the Trail of Tears. In other words, I thought about loss. An imagined purity of what we had been, and each year moved farther from. But a sophomore in the room pushed back. He talked about our futures, and the countless options ahead of us. Every possible life. If one of you were to become an astronaut, he said, that too would be part of the story of your people.

I’ve thought about that sentence countless times in the years since. Years I spent writing this book, and navigating change, and learning about the best and the worst of the world as it stands today. And, importantly, thinking about the future. What can we hope for, for ourselves? For one another, and for the people who come after us?

At one point, I thought this was a story about straightforward ambition. One woman’s desire to get to the moon. But that woman was not alone. And early on, this book announced itself as a family saga. It became a story of mothers and daughters, and a story of sisters. It became a coming-of-age novel and a love story and a book about the many ways we find and build our families. It became a book about our ancestors and our descendants, and the stories we tell in the space between them.

At its heart, this is a book about belonging, and belief in our shared future: that we may choose—person by person—to show up for one another. I hope that, when you finish this book, you’re left with a feeling of connection. To your family, your people, and humankind. Wherever we come from, and wherever we may go.

Thank you for the great kindness of reading my first novel. I carried it with me from the moment my parents dropped me off in my dorm room—I’d felt annoyed by their presence and then cried when they were gone. I carried it through the unexpected changes that come with growing up, and the moments I felt lost. I finished it, finally, on the night my daughter was born. It was the book I needed to read in those years before her, to steady myself with hope for whatever comes next. I hope it can be that for you, too.

Yours, sincerely,

Eliana