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    We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel
    We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel
    We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel

    Written by Catherine Newman

    Narrated by Jane Oppenheimer

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 8, 2022
    ISBN9780063230934
    We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for We All Want Impossible Things

    4.5/5

    222 ratings10 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a poignant and beautiful novel that explores themes of love, loss, regret, life, and friendship. The story is told with humor and brutal honesty, capturing the absurd nature of life in the face of death. The characters are well-developed, and the storyline is fresh and engaging. The book is described as achingly beautiful, with the perfect balance of comic relief. It is a 5-star read that stays with the reader, offering a real and heartfelt portrayal of the beauty life holds.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is a beautiful novel that follows two lifelong friends as one of them goes through her final days in hospice. I must immediately add, though, that this book is not a downer. In fact, it captures the fact that standing the face of death often brings life into focus in an acute and meaningful, and often hilarious way. The author is spot on in capturing the absurd nature of life with great humor and open heartedness. I highly recommend it. I would say that it can be seen as kind of an adult version of the John Green novel "The Fault in Our Stars."

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this novel. The main character was relatable and funny. It was touching and sad.
    • 5/5
      A book I needed this week. Grief is hard. It was nice to visit someone else’s for a while
    • 5/5
      So achingly beautiful, it’s one to make you laugh and cry .
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written~ excellent narrator. I’m so glad I listened to this book. It will stay with me~
    • 5/5
      Perfection!
      Such a real telling of all the beauty life holds
    • 5/5
      It just felt so real! I expected an epilogue at the end to say it was based on…
      Just the right length and a great narrator too!
    • 5/5
      Poignant and beautiful, bittersweet and joyful. Wonderfully written and moving, this novel draws you into its characters as they reflect of love, loss, regret, life and friendship, and how they all weave together to make us who we are and celebrate who we were. Told with humor and brutal honesty, the story explores how we deal with grief and loss, and how we somehow go on living without the people who taught us what it means to love.
    • 5/5
      Lovely read about friendship, love and how life can get in the way. The characters were well developed and the story line was fresh and ends about as good as it can given the situation these two ladies find themselves in. We'll worth the read.
    • 5/5
      This book is one of those books that gets engraved in your heart forever?

      The author intertwined the very sad reality of death and loss with the beauty, joys, intricacies, and even mundane parts of life so perfectly and often time with just the perfect amount of comic relief to keep you happy to have loved someone than to never have loved at all.

      You only get a few 5 star reads a year and this was one of them for me.