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The Cherokee perspective: A novel of ambition and dislocation USA
21st April 2026
To The Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage – The Cherokee perspective: a novel of ambition and dislocation USA
The perils of ambition and the need to escape
Eliana Ramage’s To the Moon and Back is a debut novel about ambition and dislocation from a deeply indigenous Cherokee perspective. Escape – from violence, from limitation, and ultimately from Earth itself – is the key theme running through one woman’s fixation of fleeing into Space.
Rooted in Cherokee history and identity, the story centres on Steph, whose earliest memory is a terrifying night-time flight from Texas with her mother and younger sister after a violent incident involving her father. Their destination is Tahlequah, Oklahoma, within the Cherokee Nation – a place of safety and cultural grounding for Steph’s mother, but not one Steph ever truly feels at home in. From childhood, her eyes are on some place else: on space, astronauts, and the promise of a future far removed from her family’s trauma and the expectations of her community.
The richness of Cherokee culture, language and history comes through strongly, not only from Steph’s perspective but also from her mother, who is trying to find her identity, and her sister Kayla, who is trying to find her own sense of belonging.
But all Steph can think about is escape from her new home. This tension – between rootedness and departure – becomes the novel’s emotional engine.
As Steph grows older, there are key formative issues which shape the rest of her life. Her mother’s attempts to stop her dream of attending Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, which she replaces instead by her own makeshift, locally organised “space and culture” camp which is nothing like the real thing. And then her education which takes her away from Tahlequah to elite institutions and research centres, where each new place offers new opportunities but takes her further away from her family.
The narrative beautifully explains locations that span university campuses, indigenous conferences and several NASA-related locations, including astronaut training environments and simulations in places such as Hawaii and Florida.
The novel intertwines the lives of her sister Kayla, who embraces visibility and becomes an Indigenous artist and influencer; her college girlfriend Della, whose removal from her Cherokee family as a child under the Indian Child Welfare Act haunts her adult life; and their mother, Hannah, whose own past slowly starts to unravel.
To the Moon and Back offers a powerful look at movement and place – from forced relocation and ancestral land, to elite academic migration and the outer limits of human exploration. But travel has its own demons – the further Steph goes, the more fragile her relationships become, and she starts to question her ambition, loyalty and ultimate success.
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