In writing both rich and evocative, Pamela Carter Joern conjures
the small plains town of Reach, Nebraska, where residents are stuck
tight in the tension between loneliness and the risks of
relationships. With insight, wry humor, and deep compassion,
Joern renders a cast of recurring characters engaged in battles
public and private, epic and mundane: a husband and wife find
themselves the center of a local scandal; a widow yearns for
companionship, but on her own terms; a father and son struggle with
their broken relationship; a man longs for escape from a
community’s limited view of love; a boy’s misguided attempt to
protect his brother results in a senseless tragedy. In the town of
Reach, where there is hope and hardship, connections may happen in
surprising ways or lie achingly beyond grasp.
