The Giver of Stars
In 1937, English newlywed Alice Wright arrives in the Kentucky mountains with her new American husband and quickly realizes that the genteel small-town life he promised her is mostly small-town suspicion and in-laws who want her to be smaller. When Eleanor Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration launches a packhorse library to carry books up into the hollers, Alice signs on and falls in with the librarians, especially the fiercely independent Margery O'Hare, who knows these mountains, these people, and exactly which men are dangerous. As their routes stretch across Harlan and Troublesome Creek, a local mine owner, a jealous husband, and an accusation of murder all threaten the work. Jojo Moyes's novel is warm, brisk historical fiction rooted in the actual packhorse librarians of eastern Kentucky.
Where The Giver of Stars keeps showing up
Three of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Also by Jojo Moyes
Books in conversation with The Giver of Stars
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about The Giver of Stars
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Englishwoman Alice Wright follows her new husband to a coal town in 1937 Kentucky and joins Margery O'Hare's traveling library, riding into the hills to deliver books to isolated families. As the women build the route, town hostility and a violent crime put them in danger.
Yes, partly. The Giver of Stars is fictional but built around the real Pack Horse Library Project in Depression-era Kentucky. Jojo Moyes researched the documented project extensively.
Yes. Both novels (published in 2019) draw on the same real-life Pack Horse Library Project. There was significant public discussion comparing the books at the time of their parallel releases.
The Giver of Stars was written by Jojo Moyes, published in 2019 by SUMA.
The Giver of Stars is 468 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Giver of Stars takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
The Giver of Stars is a standalone novel by Jojo Moyes, not part of a series.
The Giver of Stars is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
