This had me sobbing and wondering why things happen the way they do. I could not shake these ladies for quite some time. A great look at friendship, loss, and grief. How do you let someone go? Especially if they've been your forever person for your whole life?

This is a heartbreaking tale of a friendship between two women ending as one of them is experiencing a terminal illness, while the other becomes their caregiver. It is painful and also very cathartic to read if you have ever lost someone close to you.

A poignant look at the cruel reality of terminal illness, and a moving ode to the enduring beauty of friendship. Full review posted at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr291392

I'm not a prude and have a pretty high tolerance for content in novels but man one of these women sleeps around so much that it was almost farcical. I was so distracted by that that I couldn't focus on the deeper parts of the story.

Well this novel broke my heart and put it back together multiple times. I think I cried by page 25, and then again throughout. Catherine Newman's novel is a perfect depiction of the messiness of life, the highs and the lows, and sometimes the unfairness of it. I loved the story of Ash and Edi and will remember this novel for years to come.

Ash and Edi have been lifelong friends since childhood and have shared everything through their lives together. After a battle with ovarian cancer, Edi is now in hospice care.

This is such a beautifully written book filled with sadness and heartache and joy and laughter, just the humanity of everything to be living. It was an intimate look at saying goodbye. This story will stay with me forever.

i think one of my favorite books of the year, i can't recommend it for everyone just because of how truly, truly sad and about death and dying it is, but it's also so funny and charming that i immediately was wanting to read other things from catherine newman. i mostly listened to the audio (if i'm able, i'll switch between print and audio, depending on the book), and i LOVED the narrator, jane oppenheimer, who was really able to convey the humor and warmth of the book.

this was a really beautiful book. it tells the story of two life long friends, one of whom is dying. it was absolutely heartbreaking and i cried multiple times throughout the book. it was just so raw and real and i truly feel like the author perfectly captured what it's like to lose someone. the writing was also beautiful and i found so many meaningful quotes.

my only real critique is that certain plot points didn't feel super necessary. particularly ash hooking up with a bunch of different people, it was somewhat distracting and i personally could have done without it.

i also feel like another reason i didn't 100% love it was because it was somewhat similar to love & saffron by kim fay (which is one of my all time favorites) and i found myself comparing this to that one.

but overall this was a great read. it was very human and i would definitely recommend it if you've ever lost someone because it captures it very well.

This book is getting so much love and I was very excited to read it. But I found the dialogue grating and really struggled to finish. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance e copy.

Beautiful. Funny. Heartbreaking. Lovely. This is a gem of a book and I will be recommending it like crazy. I texted my BF while reading and asked her not to die until she reads this ...

What a gut punch of a book that also provided plenty of moments of humor alongside the (actual, literal) tears. It captured the limbo of hospice achingly well, and I think no matter how a reader has lost someone, this book captures both universalities and particularities. It captures friendship though thick and thin, relationships that are coming through better and worse, and more in a very brief but entirely moving story. Catherine Newman managed to write a book about loss and grief that is also deeply affirming.

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman was an unexpected joy to read. What was unexpected was the humor and lightheartedness in a book about a friend dying of cancer. I did not expect to smile through damp eyes as I read about the heartbreak of losing a loved one in nearly the worst possible way.

Edi and Ash have been best friends since childhood, and Edi ends up in a hospice facility near her friend Ash's house because they can't find one near her husband and son's home. (That fact seemed a little odd to me, but nevertheless, it fit the story.) Ash is Edi's main support and is the one there to hold her hand, bring her snacks and provide company and comfort in her final days, which stretch on longer than they initially expected. Along the way, we get to know Ash better than Edi, and we learn that Ash is going through a crisis of her own - estranged from her husband and exploring her own sexuality. Ash shows her dark sense of humor as we get to know more about her life and her family, especially her quirky daughter Belle, who turned out to be my favorite character.

I was not previously aware of Catherine Newman's writing through magazines and her blog, but she is an amazing writer. I highlighted some really big philosophical quotes on death, dying and what it means to be human. Then I would come across something really funny that involved one bodily function or another. This was a beautifully written story about the power of friendship and love getting one through the most difficult of circumstances.

This is one book I will highly recommend to readers who like sad but uplifting stories.

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for my honest review.

I have long been a fan of Catherine Newman's nonfiction/essays and I was excited to dive into her first novel. We All Want Impossible Things is the story of a woman, Ash, who is losing her life-long best friend to cancer. Newman uses the skill she has always used to make detailed, nuanced observations of the joys and sorrows of daily living. Her voice is quite pronounced in Ash's perspective and it will feel familiar to readers who've spent years with Newman's work. This awareness, in my case, sometimes pulled me out of the story. Ash is a complicated protagonist, making decisions in her grief that may leave readers frustrated with her. The pacing of the story is interesting - giving readers a sense of the aimlessness that comes with waiting for someone to die, someone you desperately wish was going to live. This is not just a novel about grief, it's also an exploration of relationships of all sorts - with friends, spouses, parents, caretakers, children. Readers will be able to tell how personal this story is to Newman. I'd recommend this book to readers who like to sit in their feelings.

"We All Want Impossible Things" by Catherine Newman is a Friendship and Family Fiction story!

Best friends since childhood, more than forty years, Edith and Ashley have been through everything together. They know each other better than they know anyone else. Now Edith is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days in a hospice facility close to where Ashley lives.

Ash spends her days talking and reminiscing with Edi, caring for her, being her friend, and trying not to fall to pieces in the process. You see, Ash is a mess. Her life is a mess and she's desperately trying to hold on, while knowing she must let Edi go...

When I started reading this book, I found myself indifferent to Ashley. Written in a first-person narrative, it was strictly Ashley talking about Ashley and my impression, from the synopsis, was this story would focus on the friendship between Ashley and Edith.

Soon, the more I read, the more I had trouble putting it down. I got to know Ash better and begin to understand how screwed up her life was. Whose life wouldn't take a downturn if their best friend was in the final stages of life?

This author has created characters that are well developed and backstories that fill-in all the gaps between them. Two of my favorite aspects of this book is the importance of friendship and family. In this story, the author has merged them together in the most beautiful way.

When I finished reading this, my first thought was, "Wow, what a ride". For a relatively short read it encompasses a roller coaster of emotions, has comedic and dark humor, devastating sadness, the beauty of friendships, the love of family, and the loss of a loved one.

Yes, it was quite the ride! Now I'd like to listen to the audiobook because I didn't get enough of it, I still get glassy eyed when I think about it, and I want to hear the voices of these wonderful characters bring this story to life for me one more time.

I highly recommend this beautifully written story to everyone who can read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper, and Catherine Newman for an ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

I am fully in the wrong mood for this book. Despite how interesting the cover and description were, I am in such a weird mood that this wasn't a standout for me

This novel with the impossibly long title is a treatise on death, love and friendship, and, I suppose, life. Catherine Newman has a gift for distilling emotions and at the same time, combining the pain of loss with laugh out loud humor. This is no easy task. What I found most interesting was Newman's juxtaposition of the feeling surrounding both giving birth and facing death.

Edi is dying of cancer. She is in a hospice near her dearest friend who spends almost every minute of her last days near her. Interspersed with those last moments are visits from a flatulent cheese loving dog and music from Fiddler on the Roof coming from the room next door. Her dearest friend Ash, the narrator, in dealing with the situation finds herself having sex with the hospice doctor, Edi's brother, and her daughter's high school gym teacher (female). She also propositions her ex-husband (sort of ex-husband, they're separated) who declines.

If you have a strong constitution and can handle some pretty gross descriptions, and if you can restrain your own tears while reading about Edi's death, you can experience one of the most original and beautifully written books I have read this year.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Touching and sometimes very funny this is a story of two best friends - supporting each other through good times and the tough times. This is the toughest time of all because Edi is in hospice and dying of cancer. Ash is determined to be there for Edi whether it is finding a lemon polenta cake or attempting to take Edi's advice on Ash's ping pong love life. I won't sugarcoat it - this is a sad story but there is a little bit of both women in all of us so even if you are fortunate enough never to have lost someone that close to you, you will still be able to laugh and cry right along with them. Once you begin reading you realize that this is not just a book about loss and the end of a life but a celebration of a life well lived and all the messiness in between. The story has all the wit and humor of Elizabeth McCracken's THE HERO OF THIS BOOK with the tenderness of Iris Rainer Dart's BEACHES or your favorite Nicholas Sparks novel. Beautifully told and stock up on tissue boxes. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

We All Want Impossible Things
by Catherine Newman
Pub Date: November 8, 2022
Harper
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. 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. The funniest, most joyful book about dying--and living--that I have ever read."
A beautiful story about female friendship. I think it's not often recognized enough the power of female friendship and this offers a moment to reflect and praise this beautiful thing! Great book! I will recommend this highly!
5 stars

A beautiful story about female friendship. I think it's not often recognized enough the power of female friendship and this offers a moment to reflect and praise this beautiful thing! To friends through all the storms and seasons of joy that life brings us!

I can definitely say this story was a unique experience! The narrator, Ash, has taken on the role of her best friend Edi’s caregiver in her last weeks in Hospice. The story goes back and forth between Whats happening in the hospice (both with Edi and the other patients, and the staff) and Ash’s domestic life with her daughters, ex husband and several lovers, At first I found this a bit hard to follow as a whole bunch of characters are introduced all at once but once I learned them, I got pretty attached quickly! Ultimately this is a story about friendship and family and life and death. Sad and beautiful at once.