Book Review: The Giver Of Stars by Jojo Moyes

“Life is complicated. Which is why finding a little joy where you can is important.”

Published in 2020, The Giver Of Stars by Jojo Moyes is set in the late 1930s in Baileyville, Kentucky, where English-born Alice Wright makes an impulsive decision to marry wealthy American Bennett Van Cleve and leave her home and family behind. She hopes for an exciting new life but soon finds herself faced with a disapproving husband who favours work over his wife and who is dominated by his overbearing father. It’s not the adventure – or the escape – that she hoped for. That is until she meets Margery O’Hare, who’s on a mission to spread the wonder of books and reading to the poor and lost – and she needs Alice’s help. Trekking alone under big open skies, through wild mountain forests, Alice, Margery and their fellow sisters of the trail discover freedom, friendship – and a life to call their own. But when Baileyville turns against them, will their belief in one another – and the power of the written word – be enough to save them?