We All Want Impossible Things
A Novel
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- 20,99 €
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- 20,99 €
Publisher Description
“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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Two best friends face the unimaginable in this deeply poignant and unexpectedly funny novel. Edi is dying from ovarian cancer and doesn’t have much time left, so she moves into a Massachusetts hospice to be near her lifelong best friend Ash while her husband and young son stay behind in Brooklyn. Ash spends precious time with Edi, reflecting on their messy, beautiful lives together, all while dealing with her ex-husband and a tangle of lovers—most of whom also have a connection to Edi. Catherine Newman’s first book for adult readers is both devastating and funny. We fell hard for narrator Ash, who is more than happy to admit her own failings, including her gaggle of less-than-ideal male companions. We loved reading this bighearted story about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newman's moving adult debut (after the kids' guide What Can I Say?) explores a lifelong friendship between two women, one of whom is dying. Set primarily in a hospice where Edi is dying of ovarian cancer, the story shifts between past and present to show the depth of Edi's lifelong bond with Ash—the childhood missteps, the joys, the Bowie concerts, and their "absolute dependability" for each other, as Ash puts it. When Edi receives her terminal prognosis, Ash becomes her primary bedside companion. But this isn't just a harrowing depiction of the heartbreak and indignity of Edi's decline, it's also about Ash, who stumbles through her disintegrating marriage, contends with her daughter's refusal to go to school, and takes a series of lovers. Ash also details the moments—at turns hilarious and sad—that make up her friendship, calling Edi's memories a "back-up hard drive" for her own. Here and throughout, Newman does a wonderful job channeling Ash's sense of impending loss. Ash also keeps up a steady stream of wickedly wry observations, such as her description of a group of children who visit Edi's bedside to play their recorders, "stand in a nervous semicircle, clutching their terrible instruments." Newman breathes ample life into this exquisite story of death and dying.
