Eliana Ramage: To the Moon and back, 9781529939583 , Transworld UK,  publishing September 2025, c format paperback

Eliana Ramage's debut novel (which is hard to believe) "To the Moon and back" is an astonishingly accomplished novel reminding me a lot of Louise Erdrich's work. 

I loved her writing, she had me in tears towards the end,  causing a flood of emotions as the family story over three decades and the misery caused by the Indian Child Welfare act unfolds.  

At the heart of this book is Steph Harper, of Cherokee descent, whose passion is science, dreaming of becoming an astronaut. Coming of age and raised with her younger sister Kayla on her mother's reservation, she is also discovering that she is gay. Told from 3 perspectives,  Steph's, Della's (Stephs first love) and Kayla's, this 448 page long novel is a story about ambition, sacrifice and love in all its variations, between mothers, daughters and grandmothers, sexual love, friendships and the deep set human need to belong...one of the best books I read this year! The author has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and uses many historical facts of Native American history in her novel.