Follows three generations of an Irish-American Catholic family who are jarred into crisis by an unexpected pregnancy. This [debut] novel is told through six different points of view, including those of the unmarried, pregnant Gracie, a local advice columnist, and her grandmother, the matriarch, who is struggling with her commitments to both the living and the dead. Within Arm's Reach is a ... reminder of how interconnected our lives are with those we love, how much more we inherit than wills decree, and how the ghosts of our ancestors walk by our sides every day--