How long does it take to read We All Want Impossible Things?
Catherine Newman
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman takes about 3 hours 59 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 59 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2022. 217 pages, about 59,675 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 6 hours 38 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 59 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 29 minutes |
The page count is the median across 9 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
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.
Subjects: Fiction, women, Fiction, humorous, black humor
