The Education of Dixie Dupree by Donna Everhart

I also know that when you have had something bad happen to you it can leave you bitter, because hurt people, hurt people. I could not believe that she would rather depend on him financially than her in-laws who were not the best, but who did not demonstrate this type of bad character. And if she found herself in some horrible situation, where she just had to allow it, she would have kept a very, very, very close eye on him. However, having been in a similar situation in my life, I found it very hard to believe that a woman who had been through what Evelyn had been through would not have allowed her rapist brother to live with them. 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. Only when Dixie desperately needs help and is met with disbelief does she realize how much damage her past lies have done. Dixie records everything in her diary - her parents' fights, her father's drinking and his unexplained departure, and the arrival of Uncle Ray. 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. But for Dixie and her brother, Alabama is home, a place of pine-scented breezes and hot, languid afternoons. 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. Sometimes the lies are for her mama Evie's sake - to explain away a bruise brought on by her quick-as-lightning temper. In 1969 Dixie Dupree is 11 years old and already an expert liar.

The Education of Dixie Dupree by Donna Everhart