First published 2025
Six-year-old Steph Harper watches her mother Hannah drive through the night after fleeing an abusive husband. They reach Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, where Hannah hopes her daughters might finally find safety and belonging. But Steph sets her sights on escape. She vows to become the first Cherokee astronaut, no matter what it costs her relationships with the women she loves most. Her sister Kayla becomes an Indigenous social media influencer while hiding her own struggles. College girlfriend Della Owens fights to reclaim her Cherokee identity after being removed from her family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act. Hannah keeps her own past secret while holding up their tribal history as inspiration for her daughters. Steph's relentless pursuit of NASA training and her lunar dreams stretches these bonds to breaking. Her ambition forces each woman to confront their deepest desires while threatening to destroy the very connections that sustain them. This is a story about the extraordinary lengths one woman will go to find space for herself.
Genres: american-fiction, abuse, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, pursuit-of-dreams
Setting: Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma
Period: 21st-century
762 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Press Large Print
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence