Introduction

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In 1969, Dixie Dupree is eleven years old and already an expert liar. Sometimes the lies are for her mama, Evie’s sake—to explain away a bruise brought on by her quick-as-lightning temper. And sometimes the lies are to spite Evie, who longs to leave her unhappy marriage in Perry County, Alabama, and return to her beloved New Hampshire. But for Dixie and her brother, Alabama is home, a place of pine-scented breezes and hot, languid afternoons.

Though Dixie is learning that the family she once believed was happy has deep fractures, even her vivid imagination couldn’t concoct the events about to unfold. Dixie records everything in her diary—her parents’ fights, her father’s drinking and his unexplained departure, and the arrival of Uncle Ray. Only when Dixie desperately needs help and is met with disbelief does she realize how much damage her past lies have done. But she has courage and a spirit that may yet prevail, forcing secrets into the open and allowing her to forgive and become whole again.

Narrated by her young heroine in a voice as sure and resonant as The Secret Life of Bees’ Lily or Bastard Out of Carolina’s Bone, Donna Everhart’s remarkable debut is a story about mothers and daughters, the guilt and pain that pass between generations, and the truths that are impossible to hide, especially from ourselves.

Editorial Review

An Amazon Best Book of November 2016: The eyes of eight-year-old Dixie Dupree are bright and wide as she candidly reveals her bumpy childhood in Alabama with her high-strung mother and somewhat useless father. When her parents' incipient divorce triggers a tragic accident, the family is overwhelmed, and Dixie's faraway uncle, Ray, comes to the rescue. Or so it seems. Debut author Everhart writes about the tension between mother and daughter with bravery and wit, unearthing the little things that can seesaw a relationship between trust and resentment. And I'm sure I won't be the only one who sees glimpses of Harper Lee's young Scout in Dixie's stubbornness and naiveté. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Education of Dixie Dupree delves into subjects too powerful to allow the book to be labeled as charming. But there is a wistful magic in seeing the world again through a child's viewpoint, even if that world is not as shiny and innocent as one would hope. --Adrian Liang, The Amazon Book Review

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