The Education of Dixie Dupree

In the heart of 1969 Alabama, eleven-year-old Dixie Dupree navigates a world of complex truths, often masked by her own expert lies. These fabrications, sometimes born from a desire to protect her mother, Evie, and other times from a need to assert herself against Evie’s longing for New Hampshire, paint a picture of a young girl’s struggle with her family’s unraveling happiness.

As Dixie grapples with her parents' marital strife, her father's absence, and the arrival of Uncle Ray, she meticulously records the unfolding events in her diary. This personal chronicle becomes a testament to the growing fractures within a family she once believed was whole. The consequences of her ingrained habit of deception become starkly clear when Dixie desperately seeks help and is met with disbelief, revealing the profound damage her past untruths have inflicted.

Despite the challenges, Dixie possesses a courageous spirit and a resilience that may ultimately bring hidden secrets to light. This compelling narrative explores the intricate bonds between mothers and daughters, the generational weight of guilt and pain, and the inescapable nature of truth. Donna Everhart's remarkable debut, The Education of Dixie Dupree, is a poignant work of Historical Fiction and Literary Fiction that delves into the truths we try to conceal, even from ourselves.