Beyond the Mapped Stars(Knopf, 2021), by emerita Segullah staffer Rosalyn Collings Eves, captures the paradoxes of being a contemporary Latter-day Saint woman and places them in a historical setting: 1878 Utah, Wyoming, and Denver. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Bertelsen dreams of becoming an astronomer, of leaving her rural polygamous home and her mother’s expectations in Monroe, Utah, to study science and learn about the stars. When her sister Rebekka needs help with her first pregnancy, Elizabeth travels to Wyoming, and from there to Denver to follow her dreams and see the 1878 eclipse. Beyond the Mapped Stars spoke in a healing way to issues I’ve wrestled with for my entire adult life.
The book is gorgeously written, and layered in a way that serves both its story and the contemporary audience reading it. Two favorite passages:
