We All Want Impossible Things

This book is an absolute gem- heartbreaking one minute, darkly funny the next. How this author managed such well formed characters in 200 pages is a mystery to me. I loved Ash, the main character, a flawed woman struggling with the impending loss of her oldest and dearest friend. Their lives are intertwined in all the best ways. I loved everything about this story -except- and this is just me being picky- there were 3 characters whose names were, get this, Jules, Jonah and Jude. Insert head exploding emoji here. It took me way too long and some flipping back and forth to figure out who was the brother/husband/daughter. But this quibble aside -a five star read. If you love a story about friendship, this one hits every note beautifully.

The main character was insufferable!

“Everywhere, behind closed doors, people are dying, and people are grieving them. It's the most basic fact about human life—tied with birth, I guess—but it's startling too. Everybody dies and yet it's unendurable.”

Ashley has been best friends with Edith for her whole life. And now Edith is sick. Very, very sick. Dying. What is Ashley to do but to pack Edi up and bring her to a hospice nearby and spend all the time Edi has left together?

“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.”

What a lovely, lovely book. About dying and death, but, also, about living.