Life After Life - by Jill McCorkle (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Gorgeously written . . . McCorkle's greatest gift is in illuminating the countless tiny moments that make up our time on Earth."--O: The Oprah Magazine

Award-winning author Jill McCorkle takes us on a splendid journey through time and memory in this, her tenth work of fiction. Life After Life is filled with a sense of wonder at our capacity for self-discovery at any age. And the residents, staff, and neighbors of the Pine Haven retirement center (from twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie) share some of life's most profound discoveries and are some of the most true-to-life characters that you are ever likely to meet in fiction. Delivered with her trademark wit, Jill McCorkle's constantly surprising novel illuminates the possibilities of second chances, hope, and rediscovering life right up to the very end. She has conjured an entire community that reminds us that grace and magic can--and do--appear when we least expect it.

Jill McCorkle's new novel, Hieroglyphics, is on sale June 9, 2020.

From the Back Cover

"Great writing, poignancy, humor, wisdom--all are in abundance here."*

Award-winning novelist Jill McCorkle takes us on a journey through time and memory as the residents of a close-knit community demonstrate that grace and magic can--and do--appear when we least expect them. From twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie, they prove our capacity for self-discovery, second chances, and hope--at any age.

"Illuminating, reassuring, and enlarging our understanding of the crossing from this world to the next, her novel sings with the mystical, the magical and the fragility of this thing called life." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"McCorkle's masterful microcosm invokes profound sadness, harsh insight and guffaws, often on the same page." --Kirkus Reviews

"Great . . . Sharply real." --Entertainment Weekly

"Clever, bighearted, and wise." --Vanity Fair

"The elderly residents of Pine Haven live and yearn and challenge one another with an exuberance that jumps off the page." --The New York Times

"This is grown-up fun. Deep pleasure for smart people. And it is beautiful all the way." --Richard Bausch, author of Peace

"A powerful gift for dialogue has always animated Jill McCorkle's fiction, and here we hear some astonishing voices . . . As readers, we feel honored to witness their passages." --The Boston Globe

"A story and characters that readers won't soon forget." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Jill McCorkle is one of the South's greatest writers; she is also one of America's." --*Ron Rash, author of Nothing Gold Can Stay

Review Quotes

"Who knew death, regret, and lengthy ruminations about days past could add up to a novel this vibrant, hopeful, and compelling? . . . Gorgeously written . . . McCorkle's greatest gift is in illuminating the countless tiny moments that make up our time on Earth." --O: The Oprah Magazine

"Clever, bighearted, and wise." --Vanity Fair

"The elderly residents of Pine Haven live and yearn and challenge one another with an exuberance that jumps off the page."--The New York Times "Home Garden" section

"Leave it to McCorkle to plumb the ultimate new beginning in this down-home, Southern-style Book of the Dead. Illuminating, reassuring, and enlarging our understanding of the crossing from this world to the next, her novel sings with the mystical, the magical and the fragility of this thing called life." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Balances humor and sorrow." --NPR's All Things Considered

"A vividly voiced round-robin of interlocking stories set in and around a North Carolina retirement home . . . Great . . . Sharply real." --Entertainment Weekly

"Funny and painful, Life After Life explores not dying, but rather the mysteries of living -- the second chances, the human connection, the love. The result is an impressive and poignant interweaving of vibrant characters; overlapping tales create a whole that is greater than the separate parts. McCorkle returns to the novel with a deeper wisdom and moral intensity. With a Southern flair, she invites the reader to muse on what matters most in the days we are given. Was it worth the wait? In a word, yes." --Richmond Times-Dispatch

"McCorkle's masterful microcosm invokes profound sadness, harsh insight and guffaws, often on the same page." --Kirkus Reviews

"A powerful gift for dialogue has always animated Jill McCorkle's fiction, and here we hear some astonishing voices . . . As readers, we feel honored to witness their passages." --The Boston Globe

"A story and characters that readers won't soon forget." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

About the Author

Jill McCorkle published her first two novels on the same day in 1984. Of these novels, the New York Times Book Review said: "one suspects the author of The Cheer Leader is a born novelist. With July 7th, she is also a full grown one." Since then she has published five other novels--most recently, Hieroglyphics-- and four collections of short stories. Five of her books have been named New York Times notable books and four of her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories. McCorkle has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, the North Carolina Award for Literature and the Thomas Wolfe Prize; she was recently inducted into the NC Literary Hall of Fame. McCorkle has taught at Harvard, Brandeis and NC State where she remains affiliated with the MFA Program in creative writing and she is core faculty in the Bennington Writing Seminars.