Adult

Releasing in a new paperback edition, Ann Napolitano’s 2004 debut novel charts the emotional life of three generations of an Irish-Catholic family. Shaken reluctantly into self-examination by the unexpected pregnancy of its youngest member, the McLaughlin family is forced to confront ghosts of both past and present, and to reappraise its values in a world of rapid change. Narrated through six subjective first-person accounts --- the pregnant Gracie, her sister Lila, their parents, their matriarchal grandmother, and a family outsider with a curious connection --- WITHIN ARM’S REACH dissects the markedly variant responses that such supposedly similar people can have to the same events.