How to join a thread that is hanging on blocking IO?

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <signal.h>

int global_gotsig = 0;

void *gotsig(int sig, siginfo_t *info, void *ucontext)
{
        global_gotsig++;
        return NULL;
}

void *reader(void *arg)
{
        char buf[32];
        int i;
        int hdlsig = (int)arg;

        struct sigaction sa;
        sa.sa_handler = NULL;
        sa.sa_sigaction = gotsig;
        sa.sa_flags = SA_SIGINFO;
        sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);

        if (sigaction(hdlsig, &sa, NULL) < 0) {
                perror("sigaction");
                return (void *)-1;
        }
        i = read(fileno(stdin), buf, 32);
        if (i < 0) {
                perror("read");
        } else {
                printf("Read %d bytesn", i);
        }
        return (void *)i;
}

main(int argc, char **argv)
{
        pthread_t tid1;
        void *ret;
        int i;
        int sig = SIGUSR1;

        if (argc == 2) sig = atoi(argv[1]);
        printf("Using sig %dn", sig);

        if (pthread_create(&tid1, NULL, reader, (void *)sig)) {
                perror("pthread_create");
                exit(1);
        }
        sleep(5);
        printf("killing threadn");
        pthread_kill(tid1, sig);
        i = pthread_join(tid1, &ret);
        if (i < 0)
                perror("pthread_join");
        else
                printf("thread returned %ldn", (long)ret);
        printf("Got sig? %dn", global_gotsig);

}

while (!_finished)
{
    pthread_cond_wait(&cond);
    handleio();
}
cleanup();

struct pollfd pfd;
pfd.fd = socket;
pfd.events = POLLIN | POLLHUP | POLLERR;
pthread_lock(&lock);
while(thread_alive)
{
    int ret = poll(&pfd, 1, 100);
    if(ret == 1)
    {
        //handle IO
    }
    else
    {
         pthread_cond_timedwait(&lock, &cond, 100);
     }
}
pthread_unlock(&lock);