We All Want Impossible Things - by Catherine Newman

Book Synopsis

Look for Wreck, the new novel by Catherine Newman--a deeply moving story of laughter and heart, about marriage, family, and what happens when life doesn't go as planned--Coming October 2025.

"Catherine Newman sees the heartbreak and comedy of life with wisdom and unflinching compassion. The way she finds the extraordinary in the everyday is nothing short of poetry. She's a writer's writer--and a human's human."--New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center

"A riotously funny and fiercely loyal love letter to female friendship. The story of Edi and Ash proves that a best friend is a gift from the gods. Newman turns her prodigious talents toward finding joy even in the friendship's final days. I laughed while crying, and was left revived. Newman is a comic masterhand and a dazzling philosopher of the day-to-day."--Amity Gaige, author of Sea Wife

"The funniest, most joyful book about dying--and living--that I have ever read."--KJ Dell'Antonia, author of the New York Times bestselling The Chicken Sisters

For lovers of Meg Wolitzer, Maria Semple, and Jenny Offill comes this raucous, poignant celebration of life, love, and friendship at its imperfect and radiant best.

Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They've shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan's Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, "Edi's memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine."

But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating cast of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters.

As The Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack blasts all day long from the room next door, Edi and Ash reminisce, hold on, and try to let go. Meanwhile, Ash struggles with being an imperfect friend, wife, and parent--with life, in other words, distilled to its heartbreaking, joyful, and comedic essence.

For anyone who's ever lost a friend or had one. Get ready to laugh through your tears.

Review Quotes

"Catherine Newman's book We All Want Impossible Things is hilarious and heartbreaking and I die for her." - Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of Quietly Hostile
"...a fierce ode to female friendship and an exploration of the messiness of life, when grief and laughter can often be intertwined . . . . Newman has a light touch and uses humor to navigate the pain and raw emotion that's at the center of the novel." - Daily Hampshire Gazette
"Yes, we all know hospice is sad, but it's also absurd, tedious and often achingly boring . . . . This story of friendship, family dynamics and even ill-timed lovers is also a reckoning with how life is about holding one another up through good times and bad-- which are often one and the same. It's a meditation on how to love through loss that will help make whatever you're dealing with feel a little bit lighter." - Good Housekeeping
"Through Ash's honest thoughts, her time with Edi, her conversations with her daughters, and her relationships with her lovers, Catherine Newman has written a novel that perfectly captures what it's like to experience love and loss." - The Everygirl
"Not advised for reading in public, unless you enjoy crying around strangers." - New York Post
"Tragically funny, with moments of clarity and wisdom, Newman writes loss and laughter in equally brilliant amounts." - Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
"Ash's voice is unbearably compelling . . . [The characters] are all original, fully imagined human beings, likable in different ways." - New York Journal of Books
"Wonderful." - Cup of Jo
"Newman's affecting novel takes place in hospice, yet it's anything but bleak . . . . Don't miss it." - People Magazine
"Genuinely heartbreaking and hilarious is a tough combination to pull off, but Newman does it in her first novel for adults . . . . Tears mix with laughter in everyday moments, showing the power of female friendship." - Washington Post
"There's no one quite like Catherine Newman, who can absolutely tear your heart out while reminding you how much there is to laugh about. This book, a novelization about taking case of her dying friend, is quintessential Catherine." - Jenny Rosenstrach, author of The Weekday Vegetarians
"In author Catherine Newman's expert hands, We All Want Impossible Things is an extraordinary ode to friendship-warm, sometimes outrageously funny, and as real as it gets. It celebrates the gift of long-term bonds without shying away from the pain of losing someone you can't imagine life without." - Real Simple
"Pulses with life . . . . full of moments both mundane and painful, hilarious and heartbreaking." - BookPage (starred review)
"Newman packs a gut punch, bringing humor and wit to a duo's final days together in We All Want Impossible Things." - PopSugar
"Devastatingly hilarious and poignantly poetic story about the intimacy of female bonds." - E! News
"Excruciatingly heartbreaking, but I laughed out loud on almost every page. And I am not an easy laughter. Newman's voice is hilarious and warm; her characters feel like old friend . . . a winning novel." - Julie Klam, New York Times Book Review
"A tender, raucous, heart-wrenching, laugh-out-loud, thoughtful and honest exploration of friendship, life and death." - BookReporter
"Fearless, open-hearted, funny, and provocative." - Lit Hub
"Compulsively readable and tenderly hilarious." - Ploughshares