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. Full of humour, warmth, and raw honesty ... a beautiful, uplifting testament to female friendship that will make you laugh and cry WOMAN This is not an easy book to read, despite the deft touch, we go through the death watch with Ashley. The author injects the ironic note of Ashley’s sexual reawakening as the life force drains from her dearest friend. 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

Tragically funny, with moments of clarity and wisdom, Newman writes loss and laughter in equally brilliant amounts. BONNIE GARMUS, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRYAnd in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. -She made – and took – a lot of it.” Humor is necessary in maintaining a healthy soundness of mind. For example, Ash found out there was a waiting list to get into one hospice. Don’t they understand the concept of hospice? Sorry, maybe next time! Or the part that someone plays “Fiddler On The Roof” every afternoon. Ash is separated from her ex-husband, and she finds intimate solace with Edi’s care team, even a family member (awkward). It’s even more awkward when her teenage daughter catches her….ewe…gross MOM!! As Ash says, “It’s monstrous. It is too much to take. Why do we even do this – love anybody? Our dumb animal hearts.” Affirming, entertaining, and unaccountably, wonderfully funny ... . [Newman] has a deep talent for the macabre humor and absurdity that it takes to describe the loss of someone you cannot bear to lose.

Whisk together the dry ingredients, then add these to the mixing bowl in two or 3 additions, beating until just mixed. At the same time, Ash is dealing with her own midlife crisis. She still pines for her husband despite their separation, but that isn’t stopping her from sleeping with several different men. As she comes to terms with her best friend’s mortality, she’s also concerned about her daughters and what will happen to Edi’s husband and young son. Edi remembers a Sicilian lemon polenta poundcake she once had at Dean & DeLuca in the mid-90s; it becomes her holy grail. She starts to think she might have imagined it, and Ash resolves to locate the cake through extreme efforts. (She finds the original baker and begs for the recipe.) The elusive poundcake becomes a way to cheer up Edi: “I climb into her bed and tell her about the Cake — the same way, when tiny children are mad or unhappy, you might distract them with a little box of raisins. And I’ll tell you: Nobody wants a box of raisins when they’re furious. Or when they’re dying, for that matter.” Raisins become her shorthand for disappointing distractions. “‘Hey! … I brought nail polish!’ Who wants raisins?!”

The characters are all original, fully imagined human beings, likable in different ways. (Sometimes they’re overly nice, in the cases of Ash’s husband with the annoying name of Honey and her too-wise-and-tolerant teenage daughter, Belle.) Intertwined with the story of Ash caring for Edi in her final weeks is the story of Ash's messy life. This doesn't detract at all from the main thread; they blend and complement each other. Fly, be free! I want to say. I want to say, Stay with me forever! Come to think of it, these are the two things I want to say to everyone I love most."

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. We All Want Impossible Things is one of those books I will be buying for everyone I know. A funny, moving, beautifully written book, I laughed and cried in equal measure. It is both a unique and wise take on friendship, love and loss that will stay with me for a very long time. JENNIE GODFREY, author of THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGSFunny and tender and life affirming and quite simply GLORIOUS....The way the friendship is depicted in this story is a masterpiece... To say I have been deeply moved by this book would be an understatement. My heart is broken after finishing it this morning but it is also singing. SARAH TURNER As a professor of animal behaviour, Ashley Ward argues that to talk of five senses is inadequate and reductive: in fact, he says, there might be as many as 53, depending on how granular we want to be: for example, a sense of balance and a sense of our body’s position both fall under the generalised description of touch. Combining biological science with history, culture, sociology and personal reflections, this is a wide-ranging and highly engaging read. Invisible Child

I absolutely hated the author's style of writing. It was just like a bunch of random ass thoughts put together with a hot ass mess of a main character. Ash is extremely annoying. The entire time reading this novel, I just kept thinking, "she needs therapy".. or she just needs to grow tf up. The dark humor throughout the novel got old and annoying fast.

My cousin, Margaret, really loved this book. So if you are my cousin Margaret, please do not read any further. Keep that good feeling going that the book gave you. Also, I really like Margaret’s book recommendations so maybe this one just hit me at the wrong time. For fans of Nora Ephron and Sorrow & Bliss, We All Want Impossible Things is a deeply moving, jubilant celebration of life and friendship at its imperfect, radiant, and irreverent best. Reading We All Want Impossible Things, I cried and laughed and cried and laughed some more, often at the same time. Catherine Newman has written rawly and honestly about love and grief, the messiness of the emotional rollercoaster of caring for, and about, the dying. Ash and Edi have been friends for their entire lives. Now Edi is in hospice dying from ovarian cancer. They go through this unthinkable journey together, as they've done everything else, always. Ash has to learn how to process and learn how to live her life separate from her best friend. All the characters, even the supporting ones, are very well-developed and they ask have their own distinct storylines that all diverge with Edi and her illness.