In Reach

Pamela Carter Joern is the author of The Floor of the Sky, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and winner of the Alex Award and the Nebraska Book Award, and The Plain Sense of Things. Visit her website pamelacarterjoern.com.

• AcknowledgmentsRunning in PlaceJudgment DayAll the Wildness in HerFire on His MindDon’t Call Me KidThe Sky Is FallingConfessionsLessons at the POAfter DeathRedeeming the Time BeingHarvestSolitary ConfinementsNormalMen of Steel

“These stories are raw and wrenching. . . . [Joern’s] deeply empathetic prose masterfully captures nuanced emotions that linger after the tales conclude.”-Emily Case, Nebraska Life"Joern's talent is in creating fully realized, interesting characters and unambiguous stories that weave together several threads."-Mary Ann Grossmann, twincities.com "Joern is a seasoned tour guide. As she tells her stories, she lets us know that she understands our broken, beautiful, humanity. For that we should give her thanks."-Aaron Klink, Collegeville Institute “In Reach is a Winesburg, Ohio, for the contemporary Great Plains. . . . Filled with complicated human stories, it is a joy to read and will stay with the reader for a long, long time.”-Dan O’Brien, author of Wild Idea"Pamela Carter Joern's fictional village of Reach, Nebraska, is populated by people you have known, or known of, all your life. In these glimpses of life as it is really lived, you will encounter your aunt Ella, your grandfather Leland, even the uncle no one mentions. You may agree that God is not absent if you are there. You will never forget Marlene and Vernon. Each character is doing "the best he can do" to harvest satisfaction from their lives. Searching for connections, you will find these folks in reach of your heart."—Linda M. Hasselstrom, author of No Place Like Home and Dirt Song "In Reach is an elegant, pitch-perfect book. . . . Pamela Joern has once again demonstrated that she's the real thing, a masterful writer capable of showing us the world through the passions, disappointments, secrets, losses, and small achievements of characters whose submerged lives are played out against the harsh beauty of the Nebraska plains. I loved this book."—Ladette Randolph, author of Haven's Wake