'Crux' is a novel about rock climbing, but risk exists far beyond the mountain’s edge

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rock climbing is a great sport for thrill-seekers. In Gabriel Tallent’s Crux, main characters Dan and Tamma fit the bill perfectly. At just 17 years old, they bond over the side of a mountain where one miscalculated inch of movement could mean life or death. However, risk doesn’t disappear once they make it safely to flat ground. For Dan and Tamma, risk exists in growing up, and growing out of their physical and emotional comfort zones. In today’s episode, Tallent joins NPR’s Juana Summers to discuss his newest novel and how rock climbing can widen more than one type of human perspective.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. What is risk? How do you think about risk?
0:08.7	I figure that most of us don't do a quick risk analysis before getting into our cars and driving to the grocery store.
0:15.3	When I pop a hard candy into my mouth, I don't start thinking in terms of actuarial tables and the likelihood of choking.
0:21.9	But when I see the kids on the street skateboarding without a helmet or someone texting and
0:26.4	driving, I do think, huh, that's risky. But maybe it's all risky. These questions come up in
0:33.8	today's interview. It's with the author Gabriel Talent about his novel Crux.
0:42.3	It's about two close friends from different tax brackets who bond over a love of climbing.
0:47.6	Talent himself is a climber and he talks to NPR's Juana Summers about the risks worth taking and how trying to avoid risk doesn't always keep you safe. That's after the break.
0:53.9	This message comes from Wise. The app for international people using money around the globe.
0:59.1	You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart,
1:05.4	get Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply.
1:11.4	Crux is a term that rock climbers know well. It's the most challenging section of a route,
1:16.3	the place where, quote, everything inside yourself told you to wait, to stall, to cling to safety,
1:22.0	and yet where if you wanted to live, you had to take the risk. That is how author Gabriel Talent
1:27.2	describes it in his new
1:28.5	novel called Crux. It's his first since his debut, My Absolute Darling, made its own ascent on
1:33.7	bestsellers list back in 2017. Talent is a climber himself and embraces that fear that
1:39.7	accompanies the exhilaration. I love that climbing can have this inch byby-inch terror, and it just takes you to spectacular
1:48.7	settings that you would never reach in your ordinary life with just wild people. So you're
1:55.3	on the journey with someone else, and it's cooperative. You're working together, which is something
1:59.7	that I have always loved about the sport. It tends to open people up a little bit. Like I have had some of my wildest
2:06.0	and most confessional moments, like sitting on ledges with friends. Talent's new novel begins with
	...

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