
We All Want Impossible Things
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jane Oppenheimer
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By:
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Catherine Newman
About this listen
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.
©2022 Catherine Newman (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Sooneela Nankani
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Maya Rao is a gynecologist trying to balance a busy life. With three young children, a career, and a happy marriage, she should be grateful—on paper, she has it all. But after a disastrous encounter with an entitled patient, Maya is forced to walk away from the city hospital where she’s spent her entire career.
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Fun story illuminating the wellness industry
- By Barbara S on 04-29-22
By: Madi Sinha
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After the End
- By: Clare Mackintosh
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey, Matt Reeves, Nathalie Armin
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers - unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son. What if they could have both? A gripping and propulsive exploration of love, marriage, parenthood, and the road not taken, After the End brings one unforgettable family from unimaginable loss to a surprising, satisfying, and redemptive ending and the life they are fated to find.
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Depressing
- By ladybug on 07-25-19
By: Clare Mackintosh
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The Collected Regrets of Clover
- A Novel
- By: Mikki Brammer
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process. Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story.
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We are all dying, but living is the key
- By C. Heness on 06-12-23
By: Mikki Brammer
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Julia
- A Novel
- By: Sandra Newman
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It’s 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell’s 1984.
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Double plus good and it hurts
- By WoofUsing ThisMonopoly on 10-30-23
By: Sandra Newman
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Talking at Night
- A Novel
- By: Claire Daverley
- Narrated by: Emma Appleton
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Will and Rosie meet as teenagers. They're opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother's wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer - destined to be one another's great love story. Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered. But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can't help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.
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I. LOVED. THIS. Emma Appleton is spectacular
- By Audrey Fine on 05-26-25
By: Claire Daverley
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Fun for the Whole Family
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer E. Smith
- Narrated by: Lauren Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The four Endicott siblings—Gemma, Connor, Roddy, and Jude—were once inseparable, a bond created by the absence of their dazzling, mercurial mother, who would return for a few weeks each summer to whisk them off on sprawling road trips around the country. Decades later, the unthinkable has happened: the Endicotts haven’t spoken in years . . . until an out-of-the-blue text arrives from Jude, now a famous actress, summoning them to a small town in North Dakota.
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Great story telling
- By CAMT on 06-07-25
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Something Wilder
- By: Christina Lauren
- Narrated by: Patti Murin, Jon Root, Christina Lauren
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up the daughter of notorious treasure hunter and absentee father Duke Wilder left Lily without much patience for the profession…or much money in the bank. But Lily is resourceful, and now uses Duke’s coveted hand-drawn maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts through the red rock canyons of Utah. It pays the bills but doesn’t leave enough to fulfill her dream of buying back the beloved ranch her father sold years ago, and definitely not enough to deal with the sight of the man she once loved walking back into her life with a motley crew of friends ready to hit the trails.
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I was surprised…
- By Gillian on 05-23-22
By: Christina Lauren
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Unlikely Animals
- A Novel
- By: Annie Hartnett
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she’s lost her way. A medical school dropout, she’s come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire, to care for her father, who is dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as having visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days.
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Delightful
- By Melinda on 06-20-22
By: Annie Hartnett
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Other Birds
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Addison Allen
- Narrated by: Siiri Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It's called The Dellawisp and it's named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother's apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts. Each with their own story.
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Brilliance Audio should be ashamed.
- By joydox on 08-31-22
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Milk Fed
- By: Melissa Broder
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control through obsessive food rituals while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting - until her therapist encourages her to take a 90-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her.
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Funny and uncomfortable
- By Kayla on 04-01-21
By: Melissa Broder
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The Music of Bees
- A Novel
- By: Eileen Garvin
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn't turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days.
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A little too many political agendas
- By Mike Thompson on 05-26-21
By: Eileen Garvin
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Count the Ways
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Maynard
- Narrated by: Joyce Maynard
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In her most ambitious novel to date, New York Times best-selling author Joyce Maynard returns to the themes that are the hallmarks of her most acclaimed work in a mesmerizing story of a family - from the hopeful early days of young marriage to parenthood, divorce, and the costly aftermath that ripples through all their lives
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AA Deeply Felt Story that Sometimes Goes Too Far Afield…
- By Molly on 07-18-21
By: Joyce Maynard
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Sipsworth
- By: Simon Van Booy
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship.
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A charming antidote for your troubles.
- By Pamela J Wollum on 07-02-24
By: Simon Van Booy
Beautiful heartbreak
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Beautifully written story
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She’s going through a divorce, losing her best friend, and she’s also a loving and kind person who sometimes is too self- absorbed.
As a nurse, I sometimes found the descriptions of the Hospice and medical staff cringey, but I mostly tried to ignore it.
The narrator’s voice captured all of Ash’s emotions perfectly.
Emotional read
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Great story Be ready for laughter and a good cry
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Do not be steered by thinking this book is about death. It is truly about LIFE. A must read.
I wish I could give it 6 stars!
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Author had some beautiful turns of phrase and descriptions of food and weather but seemed to describe her own emotions only by tear brimmed eyes or crying. Given that the novel is about the death of her best friend, tears are in order, but felt flat-as did her
constant complaint of feeling tired.
Death as a theme needs more finesse.
Overwhelmingly Adverbial
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How does she write exactly what’s been experienced and so completely?
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In my feels
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A beautiful story about friendship, love, and loss.
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Joyfully heart-wrenching
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