Join Jai Chakrabarti and Jill McCorkle for a reading and conversation at Raleigh’s So & So Books on June 23

The Libraries and Raleigh’s So & So Books co-host authors Jai Chakrabarti and Jill McCorkle for a reading and discussion about their most recent works. The free, public event is Friday, June 23, from 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. at So & So Books (719 N. Person St.). Books by the authors will be available for purchase and signing. 

Chakrabarti, an NC State alumni, is the author of the celebrated novel A Play for the End of the World, which won the National Jewish Book Award. In his most recent book, the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today across borders, religions, and race. Throughout the stories, the characters’ most vulnerable desires shape life-altering decisions as they seek to balance their needs against those of the people they hold closest. Listen to a sample of the book on Audible here.

Jill McCorkle is a professor of the practice and mentor in NC State’s Department of English. Five of her books have been New York Times Notable Books, and Life After Life became a New York Times bestseller. Her latest novel, Hieroglyphics—set in North Carolina—dives into the burden of secrets carried across generations. Empathetic and profound, this novel from master storyteller Jill McCorkle deconstructs and reconstructs what it means to be a father or a mother, and to be a child trying to know your parents—a child learning to make sense of the hieroglyphics of history and memory. An audiobook excerpt of McCorkle’s novel is on YouTube here.