Is it fair to say that astronauts are having a moment in novels this year? First, Samantha Harvey's ORBITAL won the Booker Prize. Then, over the summer, Taylor Jenkins Reid profiled the first female NASA recruits in ATMOSPHERE. And now, Eliana Ramage sets her sights on the sky in her debut, TO THE MOON AND BACK.

The book follows Steph Harper from her 1980s childhood to the near future. When Steph and her younger sister, Kayla, were children, her mother, Hannah, fled an abusive relationship, taking her two girls from Texas to Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. Hannah ensures that her daughters are steeped in Cherokee heritage, culture and language, even when Steph bristles against these aspects of her identity.

"If Eliana Ramage is writing fiction this accomplished right out of the gate, I can't wait to see where she goes next. The sky's the limit!"

Steph, who from an early age has harbored a fierce desire to become not only a scientist but also an astronaut, feels throughout her youth that her mother is trying to sabotage her goals. When Steph desperately wants to attend Space Camp in Alabama, for example, her mother instead launches "Space Culture Camp" in Tahlequah, an awkward mashup of astronomy and Cherokee traditions that leaves Steph more embarrassed than inspired. Kayla, on the other hand, wholeheartedly embraces her Cherokee identity, especially as the two mature into adulthood. She becomes an early social media influencer at the forefront of creating content around Native struggles for environmental justice and autonomy.

Although Steph's early aspirations for an Ivy League education fall by the wayside, she nevertheless attends “almost” an Ivy, the fictional Hollis College in Connecticut, where she meets another young woman with a complicated relationship to her Native identity. Della has been raised by a white Mormon family after being at the center of a forced adoption case under the Indian Child Welfare Act. Their complicated relationship is the first of several situations where Steph feels forced to sacrifice personal happiness and meaningful relationships, figuring they will impede her all-consuming professional goals.

You'll have to read the book for yourself to find out if Steph achieves her goals, but suffice it to say the journey is not a straight-line trajectory, nor is it without its complications. The novel unfolds primarily through Steph's first-person narrative, but as the story progresses, Della and Kayla offer glimpses into their own points of view. Other sections proceed through text messages, social media posts, press releases, and other documentary forms of storytelling.

TO THE MOON AND BACK is both expansive --- dramatic, immersive scenes take place at the bottom of the ocean and on the side of a volcano --- and intimate, as readers come to really understand Steph and cheer for her hard-won maturity and sense of balance. The book is also funny at times and always surprising. Near the end of the novel, Steph learns some key information about her mother that causes her to view her life in a whole new light. If Eliana Ramage is writing fiction this accomplished right out of the gate, I can't wait to see where she goes next. The sky's the limit!