Body of Stars

“An incredibly strong debut.... It’s well worth your time.”—New York Journal of Books
 
In a world where female bodies hold the map to the future, one young woman must fight to change her family’s fate.
 
Celeste Morton has eagerly awaited her passage to adulthood. Like every girl, she was born with a set of childhood markings—the freckles, moles, and birthmarks on her body that foretell her future and that of those around her—and with puberty will come a new set of predictions that will solidify her fate. The possibilities are tantalizing enough to outweigh her worry that the future she dreams of won’t be the one she’s fated to experience.

Celeste’s beloved brother, Miles, who is training to be a fortune-teller, is equally anticipating what Celeste’s transformation will reveal. But when Celeste matures into her adult markings, she discovers a devastating omen about Miles’s future. Desperate to protect her family from the truth, Celeste’s once charmed life unravels, forcing her to question everything she’s ever known about fate and female agency, and face the perils of knowing what’s to come too soon.

Laura Maylene Walter is a writer and editor in Cleveland. Her writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, Kenyon Review, The Sun, Slate, Literary Hub, Ninth Letter, The Masters Review, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships, residencies, or grants from Tin House, Yaddo, the Ohioana Library Association, the Chautauqua Institution, and Art Omi: Writers. She is the Ohio Center for the Book Fellow at Cleveland Public Library. Body of Stars is her debut novel.