Crux
Gabriel Tallent
  • Published: 20 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405979672
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Crux

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A heartstopping story of friendship, thrill-seeking and defying expectations: the explosive second novel from the bestselling author of My Absolute Darling

Dan and Tamma are two Californian teenagers growing up dirt poor in the shadows of the Joshua Tree National Park, one of the world’s great rock climbing meccas. Their mothers had once been teenage waitresses and best friends until their paths diverged. Now Dan’s mother spends her days locked in her room, her dreams squandered and all her hopes pinned on getting her precociously clever son out of town and away to university.

Tamma’s mother holds no such ambition for her mouthy, snaggle-toothed, truant-playing, queer younger daughter, who everyone but Dan believes to be a troublemaker and no-hoper. But Tamma and Dan are fuelled by dreams of becoming legendary rock climbers, of devoting their lives to summiting the most challenging climbs and defying all the expectations, both good and bad, that others have for them.

Climbing, each morning at sun-up, on cliff faces that test their bodies to the limit, is where their friendship is forged. It’s also the one thing that gives them hope. But as their final year of high school unfolds and their climbs become ever more dangerous, and their home lives ever more extreme, it’s inevitable that something is going to snap...
  • Published: 20 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405979672
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
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Praise for Crux

I wasn't seeking a novel about the intense platonic friendship between two young rock climbers, but here Crux is, and she’s a beauty

Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

There are books we like well enough to recommend, but there are a very few - To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, The Things They Carried - that we remember forever. To my own shortlist I can now add My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent The word masterpiece has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one

Stephen King, praise for My Absolute Darling

An outstanding book that could be this year's A Little Life

Guardian, praise for My Absolute Darling

Gabriel Tallent's last name is no misnomer. With CRUX, he has delivered a beautiful novel, with fully realised characters that made my heart soar and fall in equal measure. This is the sort of writing that reminds you of the universality of human life. I wish he had written another 400 pages; I'd be happy to spend another few days inside his world

Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions and Who Will Remain

Crux is one of the best novels I’ve ever read about friendship between a young man and a young woman. It’s also exciting and tension-filled. Sharply written and full of controlled emotion

Stephen King

A profound and stunning book, it will make you question yourself and every one of your beliefs. Dan and Tamma have taken up residence in my head and I suspect they will be there for a very long time

Liz Nugent