Winner of the 2022 Big Moose Prize.

DOWN HERE WE COME UP is about three women who have lost connection with their children, through alienation, adoption, and across a militarized border. Their lives intersect in a "safe house" for migrant workers outside of Wilmington, North Carolina in 2006..

From her deathbed, con-artist Jackie Jessup lures home her estranged 26-year-old daughter Kate Jessup. There, Kate meets former teacher Maribel Reyes, who is separated from her family in Ciudad Juárez. While none of these women trust each other, they do have a chance to get back what they have each lost. But they must rely on each other to hatch a perilous plan Kate doubts could ever work. She knows to distrust the motives behind any of her mother's plans. Something unseen is smoldering underneath the surface. Kate just needs to figure it out.

As the three women work alongside each other, the evils of human trafficking, the lucrative lure of the drug and weapons trade, and the heartbreak of people fleeing their homelands flow through Jackie's bungalow day and night.

A story of mothers and daughters, lost children, and broken love, Down Here We Come Up, takes a raw and intimate look at flawed people who are trying to make up for lost time and past miscalculations.

This debut is a literary mic drop. From its propulsive start to its satisfying close, Down Here We Come Up captures the convergence of three women who must weigh what's unpalatable against what's best for their children. Maternal sacrifice beats at the heart of this book, but its blood courses through the evolving landscape of race and class in the American south, the expanding drug trade, and the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers. It's an origin story and an examination of belonging composed in vibrant detail, with tone and themes reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing and Netflix's Ozark. Down Here We Come Up, like the hospitality attributed to its setting, will draw you in and won't easily let you go."--Alena Dillon, author of Mercy House and Eyes Turned Skyward

"Gripping! A fiery young woman returns home, compelled to undo a heart-twisting mistake. Layers of trouble meet her in a sultry North Carolina summer. Sara Johnson Allen delivers a pulsing, gorgeous debut novel full of schemes of survival, schemes of love."--Mary-Beth Hughes

"In exquisite prose, Sara Johnson Allen explores motherhood in the face of wrenching economic and racial realities of the American south yet weaves moments of joy and exhilaration throughout."--Ana Reyes

"Down Here We Come Up stings, and it stings good. A tenacious and moving work."--Simon Han

"Tender, honest, and thought-provoking, Down Here We Come up is an illuminating journey to the dark heart of forgiveness and self discovery."--Meagan Lucas

"This is a mother-daughter story like no other: vivid, suspenseful and full of high stakes questions about love, money, sex, children and immigration."--Margot Livesey

"Allen reminds us that home can be an emotionally messy place--and our mothers even messier. Allen masterfully captures these complexities with propulsive, wholehearted storytelling."--Deesha Philyaw

Fiction.