
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
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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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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How does she write exactly what’s been experienced and so completely?
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In my feels
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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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A beautiful story about friendship, love, and loss.
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Joyfully heart-wrenching
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