Jill McCorkle Crafts a Layered Tale of Love, Pain, and Family in “Hieroglyphics”

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In this episode 206, we visit with New York Times bestselling author Jill McCorkle, author of “Hieroglyphics,” a heartfelt and intricate tale that weaves together the lives of four characters: Frank and Lil, a married couple who came together from the shared grief of losing a parent, Shelley, a single mother raising her young son in Frank’s former home, and Harvey, Shelley’s young son.

“Hieroglyphics” is a raw and meditative story of love, pain, and redemption, with deep understanding of resilience and family bonds.

In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly had this to say about the book, ““Engrossing . . . McCorkle finds an elegant mix of wistfulness and appreciation for life . . . Throughout, McCorkle weaves a powerful narrative web, with empathy for her characters and keen insight on their motivations. This is a gem.”

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About the Author:

Jill McCorkle’s first two novels were released simultaneously when she was just out of college, and the New York Times called her “a born novelist.” Since then, she has published five novels and four collections of short stories, and her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories several times, as well as The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Five of her books have been New York Times Notable books, and her novel, Life After Life, was a New York Times bestseller.

She has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. She has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Garden and Gun, The Atlantic, and other publications. She was a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard, where she also chaired the department of creative writing. She is currently a faculty member of the Bennington College Writing Seminars and is affiliated with the MFA program at North Carolina State University.

Additional Endorsements

One of Bustle‘s Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020

A Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite Book of 2020

“A good novel can perform the same perception-bending trick as a lockdown: slowing time, throwing light on shadowed corners, reminding us of the interdependencies among us that we once took for granted . . . Vibrant, engaging . . . McCorkle, a generous, humane writer, knows that facing death allows us, as this terrible pandemic has, to focus on what is essential: how to take care of our vulnerable, and to appreciate the connections that sustain us.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A bard of Southern fiction weaves a layered tale around a married couple who retire from Boston to North Carolina amid a beehive of secrets. A hidden journal, a childhood house, a long-ago fire: All emerge as keys and touchstones in McCorkle’s shimmering prose.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Jill McCorkle has long been one of our wryest, warmest, wisest storytellers. In Hieroglyphics, she takes us on through decades, through loss, through redemption, and lands in revelation and grace. As always with McCorkle, the story feels so effortless and true that we might well miss what a high-wire act she’s performing. But make no mistake: She’s up there without a net, she never misses a step, and it’s spectacular.”
—Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Great Believers
 
“Hieroglyphics is a novel that tugs at the deepest places of the human soul—a beautiful, heart piercing meditation on life and death and the marks we leave on this world. It is the work of a wonderful writer at her finest and most profound.”
—Jessica Shattuck, author of The Women in the Castle

“Jill McCorkle at her best—a masterful storyteller noting the complications of life with a heart full of empathy.”
—Garden & Gun

“Wise and tender, Hieroglyphics captures life itself: the experiences that shape us and bind us to one another, and the moments of terror and grace we carry in our hearts. Jill McCorkle’s new novel is a triumph.”
—Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl

“A thoroughly existential story that inspects mortality, the passage of time and the inadequacies of human communication . . . [McCorkle’s] mastery of words as a vehicle to deliver raw emotions never wavers. Hieroglyphics dwells in nostalgia and the inevitable pain that’s built into the contract of life, but like a good therapy session, it proves rewarding.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“The real joy of Hieroglyphics is its intricacy, the pieces of four stories assembled into a mosaic of love and pain and redemption . . . the plain and elegant style pulls the reader through its shifts and counterpoints. You emerge bedazzled, blinking in the bright sunlight of now and carrying the shards of their experiences in your heart. McCorkle is a gracious stylist who hides a whip-smart gift behind her Southern charm. She knows how to tell a good story.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books

“Hieroglyphics is suffused with a deep and heartening understanding of human resilience and strength. A beautiful and emotionally satisfying novel.”
—Brad Watson, author of Miss Jane

“Ingenious . . .Gathers layers like a snowball racing downhill before striking us in the heart with blunt, icy force.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A powerful evocation of loss and yearning . . . McCorkle testifies to the ageless nobility of human beings who want the next generation to do better. A deeply moving and insightful triumph.”
—Booklist, starred review

“Demonstrating her widely recognized skill at creating memorable stories out of the stuff of daily life, McCorkle’s empathy for a quartet of unassuming but appealing characters provides the foundation for a novel whose drama is modest, but whose insight is deep. Jill McCorkle is an unfussy writer whose storytelling skill almost gives the impression she’s simply eavesdropping on her character’s lives. It’s that quiet talent that makes Hieroglyphics a novel whose appeal will only enlarge in the reader’s mind with the passage of time.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Hieroglyphics is a powerful, deeply moving testament to both the ties of family and the taut fragility of memory’s plumb-line. Shelley, Harvey, Lil and Frank felt so real that it seemed as if I had known them for many years; this book stayed with me well beyond the last page.”
—Daniel Mason, author of The Winter Soldier

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