The Hill: Family Secrets & Estrangement

0:00It's April 7th. Entertainment and celebrity news. Today starts now, AI-powered and spotlight ready. I'm Cory with the story. Harriet card just dropped her debut novel, The Hill, and it's a raw look at family secrets and astrangement. The story follows 12-year-old Susanna, whose mom is locked up for life after a botched bank job. Her grandma, an old school communist, dishes out tough love and zero back story, pushing Susanna to break the family chain by skipping kids altogether. This hits close to home for Clark. Her own mom, Judy Clark, was in the weather underground. Back in 1981, Judy drove the getaway car during a NIAC New York robbery that killed a guard in two cops. She got hit with 325 to life sentences, but finally made parole in 2019 after decades inside. The book dives deep into three generations of moms and daughters drifting apart, all while Susanna shuttles to prison visits and binge watches court. TV with grandma, it's heavy stuff, but Clark flips it with sharp, deadpan humor like Susanna getting

1:03jealous of her mom's prison trained service dogs. Clark's no rookie, she snagged the Paris Review's Plinton Prize and fellowships from Iowa writers' workshop and the Wallace Degner program. She poured over a decade into this one, turning personal pain into fiction that probes forgiveness and legacy without getting preaching. In the end, The Hill slows you down my time in a cell, making small details pop and forcing you to rethink what family really owes each other.