The Giver of Stars

First edition (publ. Michael Joseph)

The Giver of Stars is a 2019 historical fiction novel by Jojo Moyes about packhorse librarians in a remote area of Kentucky. Set in Depression-era America, The Giver of Stars is the story of five extraordinary women and their journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.^[1] The women deliver library books to people in the mountains of Kentucky during the Great Depression, a real-life program launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor.^[2] Universal Pictures has acquired the movie rights to The Giver of Stars, and the feature film is in the early stages of production.^[3]

The Giver of Stars received USA Today's top 100 books to read while stuck at home social distancing and was a Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick by Reese Witherspoon.^[4][5] The Giver of Stars spent 33 weeks on the New York Times best-selling list.^[6]

Description[]

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, 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 will be joined by three other singular women 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.

Based on a true story rooted in America's past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. 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.^[7]

Plagiarism claims[]

Accusations were made that this book plagiarized from The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson,^[8] however, Richardson's publisher Sourcebooks has adamantly denied these claims.^[9][10] A spokeswoman for Sourcebooks said: “We were made aware of the similarities and upon review by our legal team, it was determined that Sourcebooks would not be taking any further course of action.”^[11] Richardson's finished manuscript was submitted to several imprints at Penguin Random House in September, 2017, but the publisher claimed it could not publish the work given the very poor sales of Richardson's previous books.^[12] Richardson's accusations caused what was sometimes referred to as a "literary scandal" during the last months of 2019.^[13] Richardson acknowledged that history does not belong to any one person, and multiple people can have similar ideas.^[14] Moyes has not commented on Richardson's plagiarism accusation, but her imprint spokesperson has denied that she or the publisher had any prior knowledge of the existence of Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, its contents or of Kim Michele Richardson. Richardson chose not to engage her own counsel to pursue a legal claim in court and instead addressed her accusations to Buzzfeed.^[15]

References[]