Old Crimes

Jill McCorkle, author of the New York Times bestseller Life After Life and the widely acclaimed Hieroglyphics, who is considered "one of our wryest, warmest, wisest storytellers" (included four times in the Best American Short Stories), delivers another breathtaking collection of stories that take an intimate look at the moments when a person's life changes forever.

Old Crimes takes readers deep into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate over time and across generations. And despite the characters' yearnings for connection, they can't seem to tell the whole truth. In "Low Tones," a woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband's commentary. In "Lineman," a telephone lineman tries to keep his family close as he feels himself pushed aside in a digital world. The young couple in "Confessional" buys a confessional for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty.

Profoundly moving and unforgettable, the stories in Jill McCorkle's new collection reveal why she has long been considered a master of the form. Each story reads like a compact, brilliantly condensed novel, probing lives full of great intensity, of longing and affection, of deep regret, and of the inability to ever forget an old crime.