In The Giver of Stars, we’re introduced to the small town of Baileyville, Kentucky through the eyes of Alice Van Cleve, a young Englishwoman recently married to Bennett Van Cleve, the son of one of the wealthiest and most influential local men. However, I finally got around to The Giver of Stars after all, and I have to admit, it’s really good. A variety of sources had identified concerns about he similarities of this book and The Giver of Stars, which was published later in the same year.Īt the time, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to read another book on the same historical subject, particularly given some of the questions raised. Over a year ago, I wrote a post questioning whether we really needed another book about the Depression-era Kentucky pack hours librarians, after having read the excellent The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic–a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond. 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.īased on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling.

These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky. 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. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.Īlice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England.

The giver audio book