The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The Giver of Stars is set in Depression-era America, a breath-taking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.
Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars was universally popular within our group. Funny, heart-breaking, enthralling, covering so many themes–a novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our comfort zone.
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library (The Pack Horse library) Alice signs on enthusiastically.
The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They are joined by three other women (each a wonderful character in their own right.) who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.
What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.
Set in 1937 it had the feel of an earlier age .
A book to be recommended and savoured.
Submitted by Donaghadee Reading Group
