NEWS

• 10/1/04 - Within Arm's Reach featured on the "What's Hot" page in YM magazine's November issue.
• 8/01/04 - Within Arm's Reach on New York Post's "Required Reading" list.
• 8/01/04 - Non-fiction article by Ann Napolitano entitled "Family Secrets" appears in September issue of Britsh fashion magazine, Eve.
• 7/01/04 - First sentence from Within Arm's Reach appears in Poets & Writers'  "Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin" section.

REVIEWS

"Funny, poignant novel..."

-TIME OUT New York

"Within Arm's Reach is a rich and multi-faceted character study. Each of its narrators has a unique voice and a memorable story to tell. As the McLaughlin family story unfolds, its tellers overlap (and sometimes contradict) viewpoints, giving their own accounts of events...the real treasure of this rich first novel is the depth to which we come to know these characters. Much like families in real life, these characters are often imperfect, sometimes maddening, and always fascinating."

-Bookreporter.com

“[Napolitano] gives us a story that spins like a prism…these people are capable of making some startling decisions, entering unlikely liaisons, even experiencing visions. Repressed as they are on the surface, their inner lives swirl deep.”

-Hartford Courant

"Napolitano has created a fascinating family in crisis, concentrating most on its women, from a no-nonsense matriarch who is losing her grip, to her warring daughters, to two of her granddaughters, each troubled and tentative as they struggle to find their footing."

-Detroit Free Press (three stars out of four)

"Every dysfunctional family is dysfunctional in its own way, Tolstoy once wrote -- sort of.  And he had not even read about the McLaughlin clan of Ann Napolitano's interesting debut novel, Within Arm's Reach."

-Miami Herald (three stars out of four)

"Ann Napolitano tells her complicated story of three generations of an Irish-American Catholic family forced to confront their values by a surprise pregnancy through six different points of view. The result is a mosaic of the past intersecting with the present and a reminder that what we most love is what can do us the most damage."

- The Dallas Morning News

"[Within Arm's Reach] shows the promise of a very talented writer..."

-Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"In this graceful and fluidly written debut, Napolitano breathes new life into that workhorse of women's fiction, the family saga told from multiple points of view." 

-Booklist

"Successfully skirting melodrama, Napolitano gives us a family drama that says even the most contentious can find a bit of happiness, if they are willing to take a chance on being hurt by the risky business of opening their hearts."

-Orlando Sentinel

"Napolitano draws us in...Gracie's pregnancy and Catherine's response to it is the catalyst that unfreezes [an] unhappy tableau and demands that truths long hidden be spoken and confronted."

-Tallahassee Democrat

"Ann Napolitano's first novel, 'Within Arm's Reach', explores this fertile territory... an Irish-American Catholic family living in New Jersey.  We view this clan's unfolding problems... without which family life - or at least family reunions - would be unbearably dull."

-New York Times Book Review

"In Napolitano’s wonderful first novel, deftly told from six points of view, a New Jersey family bears witness to the cycle of life. The matriarch of the Irish-American McLaughlin clan, Catharine, is living in a care facility, her “whole life [in] one room.” On the other end of the spectrum, Catharine’s unmarried granddaughter, Gracie, is pregnant by a man she doesn’t love… Napolitano gracefully and honestly charts the tensions as the various family members come together."

-Publisher’s Weekly

“Narrated in six different voices, this stunning first novel explores the multigenerational dynamics of one Irish American family and exposes misunderstandings and broken relationships….Although this exquisite, skillfully written gem addresses serious issues - e.g., guilt vs. loyalty, the past vs. the present - the narrative remains hopeful and includes ample doses of humor and wit.”

-Library Journal (Starred Review)

“A fresh and exceptionally strong family portrait, mercifully free of sentimentality…”

-Kirkus Review

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WITHIN ARM'S REACH

“It isn't the author’s talent that makes Within Arm’s Reach so compelling, although Ann Napolitano has one of the most natural talents I have seen in a long time, and it isn't the book’s unassuming grace, although its grace is utterly beguiling, but something else altogether. It is irresistible because of all these qualities and the fact that the author’s heart is so precisely in the right place and because of her instinct for the perfect detail. Within Arm’s Reach is for anyone who has ever had family difficulties, been in love or wanted to be in love, felt lonely or troubled, which, of course, makes it a book for just about everyone.”

Craig Nova, author of Wetware and Cruisers

“Ann Napolitano writes with beauty and power, skillfully bringing her characters within arm's reach until your heart is taken, and this family becomes your own. This novel is a must-read for any book group.”

Hannah Tinti, author of Animal Crackers

"As if we are friends she brought home for the holidays, Ann Napolitano plops us onto the living room sofa of a big family with big problems and gives us an intimate view of what goes on behind closed doors. Within Arm's Reach is a deft, vivacious novel whose author compels us to stay seated until the very last word."

Helen Ellis, author of Eating the Cheshire Cat

"The McLaughlin women are a case study in dysfunctionality: Lila is driven and conflicted; Kelly is controlling and bitter; Gracie is pregnant, husbandless and adrift; and Catharine is hallucinating, seeing visions of her long-dead children. And they're all stooped under the burden of their emotional baggage, the result of generations of grievance and repression. Exhausting, huh? But guided by the sure hand of a fine storyteller, we dive deeply into their souls and find, along with all the wreckage, essential qualities of courage, determination, grace, even love and hope. Ann Napolitano has written beautifully and wisely, and the product is a stunning and lasting story."

Robert Inman, author of Dairy Queen Days and Captain Saturday

“Within Arm’s Reach is, plainly stated, a beautiful story. Napolitano accomplishes the difficult task of interweaving multiple voices into a strong, subtle narrative that engages to the very end.”

Martha Witt, author of Broken as Things Are