Dixon, Descending: A Novel

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A powerful, heart-wrenching debut novel about ambition, survival, and our responsibility toward one another Dixon was once an Olympic-level runner. But he missed the team by two-tenths of a second, and ever since that pain decades ago, he hasn't allowed a goal to consume him. But when his charming older brother, Nate, suggests that they attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest, Dixon can't refuse. The brothers are determined to prove something-to themselves and to each other. Dixon interrupts his orderly life as a school psychologist, leaving behind disapproving friends, family, and one particularly fragile student, Marcus. Once on the mountain, they are met with extreme weather conditions, oxygen deprivation, and precarious terrain. But as much as they've prepared for this, Mt. Everest is always fickle. And in one devastating moment, Dixon's world is upended. Dixon returnshome and attemptsto resume his job, but things have shifted- for him and for the students he left behind when he chose Mt. Everest. Ultimately, Dixon must confront the truth of what happened on the mountain and come to terms with who can and cannot be saved. DIXON, DESCENDING offers us a captivating, shattering portrait of the ways we're reshaped by our decisions-and what it takes to angle ourselves, once again, toward hope.

Reviews

A beautiful and haunting story about brotherly love, remorse, hubris, natures unique cruelty, and survival. Karen Outen understands first-class human drama. She grabs hold of your neck and doesnt let go. Here is tragedy in the purest sense.Gabriel Bump, author of Everywhere You Dont Belong

Karen Outens Dixon Descending is a quiet, sometimes violent, incredibly moving, novel by writer who knows how its done. The brutal honesty, arresting prose, love, hate, compassion, strength, and weakness are exactly what writing should be. Outen has blessed us with a brilliant character study and a powerful, important read.LaToya Watkins, author of Perish and Holler, Child

Outen's portrayal of the perils and passions of climbing is terrifically (and terrifyingly) vivid, but it's her feel for character that's truly outstanding. A sharp, sympathetic observer of family and community, she conjures her central figurein all his aching, aging humanitywith surpassing wisdom and grace. This is a novel of huge heart; less a story of survival, than a story of how we survive survival.Peter Ho Davies, award-winning author of The Welsh Girl, The Fortunes, and others

Dixon, Descending reaches the heights with the story of brothers Nate and Dixon, who choose an adventure that ends in disaster and breaks your heart with the aftermath for one of them. With her powerful tale of two Black men going where Black men rarely go, Outen asks the reader to leave their assumptions down at base camp and climb with her. This book will hurt you, move you and make you glad you joined the journey.Martha Southgate, author of The Fall of Rome, Third Girl From the Left, and The Taste of Salt

Dixon, Descending is the most engulfing, transporting, deeply humane novel Ive read in ten years. Outen gives us everything a reader could want: characters to worry about, a plot with depth and heart, exquisite suspense, and writing so gorgeous you have to mark every page. The Bryant brothers will live with me forever. Monica Wood, author of The One-in-a-Million Boy, When We Were the Kennedys, and others

Karen Outens gifts as a writer are many, but her triumph in Dixon, Descending is the vividness of its characters. They live, breathe, speak, and love as real people. Their anguish and their victories will stay forever with Outens readers. This is a gorgeous and important story. Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Shadow Land

Author Bio

Karen Outens fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, The North American Review, Essence, and elsewhere. She is a 2018 recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award and has been a fellow at both the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan and the Pew Fellowships in the Arts. She received an MFA from the University of Michigan. She lives in Maryland.