“Throughout, McCorkle weaves a powerful narrative web, with empathy for her characters and keen insight on their motivations. This is a gem.” —Publishers Weekly (starred 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

“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

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

“No one has a more captivating storytelling style than McCorkle, and her narrative gifts are on full display in Hieroglyphics. As in her previous novel, Life After Life, she does a masterful job of weaving a whole from many parts. Revelations about all the characters arrive slowly, finally reaching a conclusion that is fully satisfying, as soaked in love and sorrow as every human life.” —Chapter16.org

“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.” —The 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