WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS
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,
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.
- Harper Perennial
- Paperback
- November 2023
- 224 Pages
- 9780063230927
Buy the Book
$17.99
About Catherine Newman
Catherine Newman has written numerous columns, articles, and canned-bean recipes for magazines and newspapers, and her essays have been widely anthologized. She is the author of the novel We All Want Impossible Things; the memoirs Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness; the middle-grade novel One Mixed-Up Night; and the bestselling kids’ life-skills books How to Be a Person and What Can I Say? She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Praise
“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
“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
“This is an absolute heartbreaker of a novel. Catherine Newman’s book, through deceptively simple language and everyday moments experienced during a friend’s hospice death — funny, sad, regretful, hopeful — is a celebration of life. For anyone who has prepared a hole in their heart for loss, We All Want Impossible Things is a reminder that, in time, that hollowed hallowed space is also there for when the light and love from grief pour back in.” —Laura Zigman, author of Separation Anxiety
“A novel set in a hospice has no right to be as hilarious, charming, and hopeful as We All Want Impossible Things. With Nora Ephron-style lightness, Catherine Newman has constructed a truly singular tale of love and friendship in the twenty-first century. I loved it.” —Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
“Gorgeous, tender, and unexpectedly funny. I read the entirety of Edi and Ash’s story with my hand clasped over my heart.” —Kate Baer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman and I Hope This Finds You Well
“Fearless, open-hearted, funny, and provocative.” —Lit Hub
“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.” —Katherine Center, New York Times bestselling author of The Bodyguard
“Devastatingly hilarious and poignantly poetic story about the intimacy of female bonds.” —E! News
“[Newman] brings Ash to life through a voice that is both hilarious and filled with crushing sadness, but the ultimate message is that of hope. A crossover readalike for fans of death memoirs such as those by Paul Kalanithi and Nora McInerny.” —Booklist