I think it’s safe to say that Catherine Newman’s most recent novel, We All Want Impossible Things, is one of my favourite books of all time: it’s somehow hilarious and devastating in the same moment, spanning friendship, loss, and the importance of holding your loved ones close. Newman is back on bookshop shelves and – I didn’t think this would be possible, but her new book might be even better than the last. Sandwich is beyond stunning: it is a sun-kissed, shimmering paen to parenthood and the wondrously, infuriatingly complicated task of being a human in this world. Rocky and her husband Nick have again rented the same seaside cottage in Cape Cod which their little family has been summering in for decades: their grown-up daughter Willa and son Jamie, and Jamie’s girlfriend Maya – and the family’s elderly cat Chicken – are all joining their parents for a blissful week together which is part-scripted by joyful, precious tradition, part unknown waters as they all age and change, growing into their new selves. Rocky is wrecked by surges of menopausal rage, and completely incapacitated by her love for her children: her beloved parents arrive for a short stay, so much older than they were before, resisting their all-too-fragile ageing bodies and the compromises that must be made to accommodate them. Every corner of the cottage is layered with sepia-tinted memories of past holidays where the children were little: now the uncertainty of the future flickers before each of them, challenging them to keep staying together in the face of happenings both big and small. Secrets are revealed, new connections are made, and life – as ever – will never be the same again. I cannot urge you enough to make sure you pre-order this: you will laugh out loud, then find yourself in floods of tears, and get a little glimpse of the simultaneous joy and panic of being a parent to beautiful yet terrifying, how-can-they-be-so-big, almost-adult children.

You'll have already seen hundreds of rave reviews telling you how wonderful 'Sandwich' by Catherine Newman is - and Im here to add my voice to the adoring fans.

I thought it might be a quick read but I had to stop and wipe away tears (of laughter as well as sadness) on almost every other page. It was a book that deserves to have time given to it, so that the reader can stop to connect with those moments that sing out, moments that make your heart break and moments that make your heart soar. It is exquisitely written, tender and honest about seemingly quiet moments that are elevated to something much more magical.

Sandwich is written for all of the women in their 40s and 50s whose children may be somewhat grown but still need them; those in long term marriages where you are so familiar with one another that there are no surprises left, and of course those living with the joy of peri-menopause and menopause, where everything that you think you know about your body and mind is thrown out of the window , and who knows where it will land. Catherine Newman writes about all of these so impeccably, tiny details being put under a microscope and deliberated over.

It is funny, witty, charming, brutal, honest, eye-opening, tender, packed with emotional insights and beautiful family moments. A book to treasure.

What a wonderful read! It's not often I find a book that pulls me in so effortlessly that I want to read it all in a day, but this was one of those occasions.

I have not read anything previous by this author (although I heard about We All Want Impossible Things) so I didn't have any preconceptions about what I was about to read. Sandwich isn't a very long book and beautifully captures a family's week long holiday in Cape Cod - everything is the same as it's always been and yet it's not.

Rocky is in her fifties and battling with menopause and what she feels is the loss of her fertility and in part her femininity, on top of worrying about her grown kids in their 20s making their way in the world and her elderly parents - still active but slowing down and needing more support than before.

They spend their holiday doing all the things the usually do there, it seems like nothing much is happening and yet under the surface things are moving and changing and Rocky has to deal with a few revelations and secrets of her own. It is very clever and sharply written, managing to find that balance between acknowledgement and a shudder of recognition from the reader. It is brilliant to read an honest perspective from a female character around menopause and growing older.

I enjoyed this book and the story it told and loved the setting , I personally preferred the author previous book to this but that’s my personal choice

Thanks to publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story

Full of love, family story of nostalgia, generational secrets and future hope.

This was so lovely. I both adored Rocky's family and felt jealousy - of their strong bonds, closeness and clearly happy memories. Rocky (Rachel) happily watches her grown children on their annual family trip to Cape Cod. Having moved on from idyllic 'young family' status, her young ones are mature, clever and successfully transitioning to adult life.

We watch the family enjoying time together but under the surface some both long-standing and recent secrets fermenting gently and needing to surface. Watching the characters deal with these issues so sensitively and responsibly gave me hope and a happy feeling - it's not all soap opera drama and thriller-type relationship-splitting storylines - things can be calmer and still important.

Returning to her own past decisions, seeing their impact decades later, readers also see Rocky's own parents dealing with even further-back secrets from World War II, and her son's more immediate situation, in the light of all else that is going on.

With summer sun, good food and family time constantly around them all, Rocky and her husband exemplify a long-term marriage of love and little annoyances, of successfully rearing children and coping with change (in Rocky's case - graphic menopausal descriptions!). It feels real.

A few years ahead of me physically and as a parent, this hit home and showed me what might be ahead of me.

A mature and carefully observed piece of writing, rather beautiful and uplifting.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

Rocky and her family are enjoying their annual holiday in the rustic sounding Cape Cod. 'Sandwiched' between her growing children and ageing parents, as secrets are shared she reflects on their time together and holidays past.
I actually read this while on my own version of Rocky's annual family holiday (3 generations in the beautiful New Forest) so there were many 'oh my god, yes!' moments in this highly relatable book; the overwhelming love and fear she has for her children, the incoming realisation that her parents are getting older and the gratitude of getting to spend time together.
I loved the witty humour in this book but it also explores miscarriage, mental health and menopause in a honest but very direct way so be warned.

Catherine Newman wrote We All Want Impossible Things, one of my all time favourite novels. I approached Sandwich with a degree of apprehension- how could it possibly measure up?
Thankfully I adored it, it’s a very different novel and didn’t make me cry as much, but wow it’s relatable and very very funny.
Rocky is in her mid 50s exactly between her grown up children and her still healthy parents.
Every year they spend a week in a small Cape Cod rental and Rocky can’t wait for this years holiday to begin. However, she’s beginning to realise that her body has a mind of its own and she is going to have to face up to the changes within her if she is going to deal with what is happening to the other members of her family.
You can literally feel the sun on your face and taste the picnics and takeouts that bring the family together. Rocky’s daughter, son and his girlfriend are trying negotiate a path to adulthood while crammed into a tiny house with their parents and grandparents - it all feels so believable and you desperately want them to move forward even as you see how Rocky and her husband grieve for the childhood years of the past.
It’s wonderful to read a book that is so utterly honest about growing older, the menopause and the twin challenges of children leaving while parents grow older. That it also makes you laugh out loud while inwardly shuddering is down to some very clever writing. This mid 50s woman will be pressing Sandwich into the hands of a lot of friends this year.

This is such a thoughtful book. It explores the highs and lows of motherhood, the joy and challenges that come from family, the unusual impacts of menopause.

We follow a family over the space of a week as they take their regular summer holiday to the beach, enjoying and recreating the nostalgic activities they’ve done since their children were small, who are now in their twenties. They take the same holiday every year, doing the same things, though this year they have their son’s girlfriend with them too.

We follow Rocky throughout the novel. Rocky, the mother, the person who everyone comes to with their problems, the nurturer, the person in the middle of everyone’s personal issues. Rocky cares for, and worries about everyone, her husband, her children, her parents (who always come for exactly two nights of their vacation). Rocky is keeping secrets of her own though, and revelations during the week will force her to confront these secrets.

This was a slice of life book and it’s absolutely fascinating. It’s often amusing, often tear jerking. The prose is razor sharp. It’s not a long book and yet, we have such rich and unique characters. This is a character led book rather than plot, and this author has excelled at giving us quirky yet believable members of this family.

I don’t often read contemporary fiction but when it’s this good it makes me see why it’s worth it!

Rocky and her husband Nick have reached that middle point in life where adults seem to be at their most stretched. They’re coping with children who have left home or are living at university as well as increasingly elderly parents who need more help than they have before. This is the sandwich of the title. The emotions are conflicting, from the parental support a fledgling teenager still needs to the worry about their independence, as well as the feelings of loss that that come from empty nest syndrome. As for parents, it’s like a whole new stage in the relationship defined in the novel as ‘anticipatory grief’ because as they become increasingly frail there’s a constant reminder that the clock is ticking. This reminder of their mortality brings up feelings of loss and a sense of our own life being at their point where more is behind us than in front of us. I’m saying ‘we’ because I fall bang in the middle of this category. I have parents who have endless medical appointments, particularly Dad who seems to have surgery on a yearly basis like some sort of annuity. However, I also have one stepdaughter away at university, really stretching her wings as she ends her second year and moves in with her boyfriend. We’re only a quick call away though and we’ve gained a third child in the boyfriend. We miss her more than I can express. Then we have my other stepdaughter, one of the generation whose education has been massively affected by COVID. She has so many plans with friends that we now see her less so the loss is twofold. Then there’s the menopause, from sweating to vaginal atrophy it’s a veritable shitshow of symptoms that we’re just supposed to manage alongside everything else. To say I felt a kinship with our narrator Rocky, is an understatement. Again Catherine Newman has managed to put something on the page that’s raw, emotional and relatable. So much so that there were points in the book where I burst into tears.

Rocky is a great narrator in that I was immediately comfortable with her and believed in her world. This book was such an easy read and flowed so beautifully that I finished it in a day. A family trip to the Cape Cod holiday home they’ve rented since the children were small throws a family that’s scattered to the four winds, under one roof. Eldest child Tim is there with girlfriend Maya and student Willa has travelled from her college and meets them there. Later in the week grandma and grandad will join them for two days and of course there’s the ancient cat. They are rather piled in on tap of one another but they couldn’t come here to a different, bigger rental because so many of their memories have been made in this house. During the course of the week Rocky will learn and divulge some secrets, all of them filtered through her anxiety and what husband Nick calls a hint of narcissism. This family were so like my own that I deeply appreciated my upbringing, even though some of it wasn’t easy - we never had money, found a secret sibling then happily lost them again, mum and dad had their turbulent years. Yet I always felt loved and that’s what there’s a surfeit of in this family, everyone loves everyone else even when they disagree. Rocky is a passionate and emotionally intelligent mother, the sort of mum you might go to with a secret. She also happy to be schooled where she gets it wrong, especially where daughter Willa is concerned. She might use the wrong pronouns and need to check her privilege occasionally but largely she’s the sort of mum you want. She feels things almost too deeply and I understood that in her. She wants to breathe in her children when they’re little. She reminds me a little of something my mum and Mother, my great-grandmother, used to say when my brother and me were little: ‘ I could eat you on a butty without salt’.

I think Catherine Newman is brilliant when it comes to trauma and intergenerational family dynamics. There was a moment, as Rocky was reminiscing about a time when she miscarried that made me feel like she’d read my mind. I had recurrent miscarriages in my twenties and I’d never been desperate for children till I lost the first one. No one explained that grief can manifest in strange ways, in fact after my operation (which I’d had to consent to on a termination form) I was told when it would be physically possible to try again, but never that it might be a good idea to grieve first. To take time. As far as emotions went I was given a leaflet of phone numbers of women who’d had miscarriages - with the warning that in a lot of cases I might hear children in the background. I couldn’t bear to hear that so I didn’t call. What I do remember from that time was buying pregnancy tests in bulk and checking frequently whether I might be pregnant again, even if I’d already checked yesterday and knew I wasn’t. The author writes about Rocky staring at pregnancy tests, imagining she can see the second line in the window and trying again for the answer she really wants. I truly felt her pain in those moments and my own. I felt slightly less mad. To realise this was an understandable response to grief was so comforting. Every emotion I felt in those terrible couple of years was due to grief. I felt a failure, defective and terribly separate from people as if I was looking at life through a glass screen. Now thirty years later I’d like to thank Catherine for the way she handled this difficult story line because I finally felt less alone. I really admired the way she wrote about post-natal depression too. When my mum had my younger brother I was only four years old, but for years afterwards she had a morbid obsession that he was going to die. Every time something happened in his life she worried that this would be it. Now he would be taken away from her. I have to say that sometimes this felt very dismissive of me. Her explanation when I asked if she’d ever thought the same about me was that I could look after myself, despite me spending a long time in hospitals. This aspect of PND is something I’d never considered before and helped me to understand where she was coming from a little better.

I thought the author beautifully described how women are more aware of their bodies because we’re trained to be. In a medical world that’s often dismissive of things like period pain ( or anything that falls into the category of gynaecology and obstetrics) as a natural process, the author shows how these things truly feel physically and mentally. We have to ‘know’ as soon as we’ve got our period because the shame of being seen to bleed is fierce, especially as period shaming seems to be rife in secondary schools. Our minds and bodies are connected so we know if something is a normal pain or a pain that has a different feeling or intensity. As Rocky loses the idea of the baby she’s carrying, she’s also physically losing the baby. These moments are raw because the emotions are. There’s a desperation in physically losing a baby. The mind does gymnastics trying to find a way to keep them inside you where it’s safe. As Rocky reminisces about this time, the unresolved emotions are clear and perhaps stirred up by menopause symptoms and having her babies under one roof. I enjoyed Rocky and Nick’s marriage too. It’s not perfect and they haven’t really connected for a while, physically or mentally. When he stumbles on a long held secret it throws their dislocation into the spotlight and gives them the opportunity to talk. He still loves her, despite the fact she’s a bit of a narcissist. She recognises that throughout the holiday Nick has been cooking, organising, driving everyone and just quietly looking after everyone. They’ve been in their mum and dad roles for so long they’ve forgotten how to be Rocky and Nick. It’s something of a relief for Rocky to know that Nick still desires her, despite the expanding waistline and loss of libido. Also, as Nick points out, it’s hard to get close to someone when there’s a huge secret between them.

I connected with this novel so deeply and I raced through it in a day. I simply sat and read without music or any other distractions, that’s how engrossed I was in this family’s story. Each generation had it’s own issues to deal with. The grandparents are facing health issues and their eventual loss of each other, brought into sharp focus when grandma faints at the beach. Ricky’s son and his girlfriend are facing some huge life choices. Even great-grandparents cause a drama when Rocky’s dad lets slip that they were in a concentration camp, something Rocky’s never known. Rocky and Nick are the meat in this emotional sandwich. Catherine Newman has once again written a novel about family that is truthful, funny and life-affirming. I can easily see this being on my end of year list.

This was an interesting exploration of womanhood

Sandwich takes place over an annual family break in Cape Cod, where we get to know more about Rachel (Rocky) and Nick, the parents, and Willa and James, their children, who are already in their 20s. We are taken on this week-long trip through the eyes of Rachel - a mother, a wife, a daughter, but a woman most of all - as she goes through the abundance of emotions that go along with having to play all of these parts simultaneously. Rachel is having a hard time coming to terms with her children being all grown up and her body changing on her without her say.

I thought this was a very interesting exploration of womanhood, with a protagonist in her 50s, which is not as common as it should be. It made me look at my own mother in a different light. It was at times funny and at others heartbreaking, a hard feat to achieve.

Thank you to Doubleday UK and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

Catherine Newman is a direct, funny, observational writer. This was clearly seen in We All Want Impossible Things and continues in Sandwich. Sandwich is set in Cape Cod on an annual family break - it is a special place to them all and the mum, Rocky, cherishes this time where her grown up kids and parents come together. Rocky is menopausal, nostalgic and melancholic as we watch them all on vacation through her eyes. There are some little dramas and revelations that happen during the week but really this novel centres around Rocky and her feelings - some will be very relatable and some won’t. For me, it got too schmaltzy in the final third and the memories beginning with ‘When Jamie was x years old and Willa was not yet x years old..’ became irritating. Overall, this is a funny, emotional read and I will read anything Catherine Newman writes.

As a 50 year old woman who has just gone through the menopause, the first chapter had me roaring with laughter; “plungergate” as Rocky later called it, had me hooked and I knew this was a book with my kind of humour.

Rocky and Nick‘s children are the same age as mine and the relationships between the whole family and the banter are SO totally relatable! Her feelings about sand - YES, EXACTLY! I was reading numerous passages out to my husband because this book could be written about me!

The story is told during their stay at the same holiday home they have been to every year since the children were born, so there was lots of nostalgia and hints of a tragedy that came to light later in the book and was heartbreaking, but demonstrated the strength of the family and their love and support of each other.

And then we moved on to vaginal atrophy. I was crying with laughter, but kind of ironically because this stuff is REAL for us women!

This is one of the best books I have ever read and even though there is definitely some serious subject matter in the story, it made me laugh and laugh and laugh and every woman needs that in her life!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Catherine Newman and Random House, Transworld for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Searingly insightful, humorous, yet true-to-life account of a week in the life of three generations of one family (and the family cat) on their summer holiday.

Rocky, our protagonist, is navigating both the changes in her family - ageing parents, children growing up and flying the nest- alongside internal body changes courtesy of menopause.

Newman's empathy as a writer shines through, with difficult topics treated with grace and appropriate consideration, whilst still being injected with humour. Makes the story all the more believable and relatable. Full of laughs, bickering and love.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for kindly sending me this ARC.

Expectations are a curse sometimes. We All Want Impossible Things was one of my favourite books last year, I laughed and sobbed my way through it and went into Sandwich hoping for more of the same. (By the way, I know lots of you didn't enjoy WAWIT as much as I did - it wasn't a universal hit). Unfortunately, Sandwich, a slice of life novel (if you'll pardon the pun), didn't work for me in the same way.

Rachel (or Rocky as she's better known to her loved ones), is a menopausal mother of two, married to Nick. Rocky is sandwiched between her young adult children Jamie and Willa, who are old enough to be fun while still needing her, and her parents whose advancing age and health issues are becoming harder to ignore.

The family is on holidays together for one week in Cape Cod, in a rustic rental they've taken every summer for two decades. Rocky makes the (delectable sounding) sandwiches for their beach picnics, but as the hot flashes and menopausal symptoms bubble up, so too do the secrets Rocky has been carrying with her for years.

I love Newman's writing, and chuckled aloud at times, but for a relatively short book, I felt there was too much packed into this Sandwich and its message was muddled - pregnancy, pregnancy loss, menopause, miscarriage, the Holocaust. I'd rather have spent more time as a reader on Rocky's relationships with Nick, Willa and Jamie. The ending was rushed and just didn't feel fitting for me. A good, if not brilliant read from an author I'll definitely continue to follow. 3.5/5 stars

This is Catherine Newman’s second adult fiction novel. Having read (and loved) We All Want Impossible Things by her earlier this year, I was very excited to read this book! This story follows 54 year old Rocky and her family on their annual week long trip to Cape Cod.

It’s safe to say that Catherine Newman is an absolutely brilliant character writer! I loved the dynamic between Rocky and her two adult children. Their relationship felt very real. Rocky isn’t a perfect person, but she doesn’t have to be and none of us are. I felt like I knew the characters so well by the end, impressive for such a short book.

I appreciated the discussions on women’s health and menopause, something that is not talked about enough! I felt educated by this book. Additionally, the discussions on loving and losing felt extremely raw and moving. This was a beautifully reflective book.

This book felt like looking through the window on this families vacation. You’re watching their everyday lives and interactions. It really felt like it celebrated the beauty of the every day while reflecting on how our family relationships change as we age and grow.

I would highly recommend this book, Catherine Newman has quickly become an auto buy author for me!

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC!

SANDWICH

Catherine Newman

"She has always pictured it both ways: squinting against the unbearable lightness of loving while simultaneously crouched under the heavy cross of it. "It's so crushingly beautiful, being human," the mother sighs, and the daughter rolls her eyes and says, "But also so terrible and ridiculous"."

-this book is so so digestible
-the story spans a week in Cape Cod for Rocky's annual holiday with her family (swipe for Goodreads summary)
-I cared so deeply for Rocky and her family by the time this was over, the difficult balance between grown-up kids and elderly parents is painted perfectly
-Newman tells REAL stories incredibly well, it's not dramatic, it's gentle and warm and full of authentic thoughts, conversations and relationships
-Rocky is my legend of a mum holding us all together in our mess while no doubt holding in her own
-and still in true form Newman makes us chuckle along the way

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"This is how it is love somebody. You tell them the truth. You lie a little. And sometimes you don't say anything at all."

"And this may be the only reason we were put on this earth. To say to each other, I know how you feel. To say, Same."

Hugely grateful to @netgalley for this advanced digital copy. I've been dying to read this since loving We All Want Impossible Things last year. It didn't disappoint!

A different book to what I expect but I thoroughly enjoyed this observation of the middle of life. The story is told from Rocky’s perspective as she has a week away with her adult children as well as her parents. An interesting look at the roles within the family as well as the things we talk to our families about. Very raw at times and very real, not sugarcoated and for that in particular I really enjoyed this book

3.75 rounded up to 4.

We follow Rachel (Rocky) on a family vacation as she navigates menopause, finding her place as a mum to grown children who have flown the nest and deals with a secret she'd buried many years ago.

I personally found this miscarriage/termination storyline compelling due to personal circumstances.

But was slightly irritated by the "when Jamie was 5 and Willa not yet 2" rather than just giving a year date. But this .was minor.

Sandwich takes place over one week; we see three generations of one family as they share a holiday together. It is told from the perspective of Rocky, a woman who is coming to terms with the changing dynamics of her family, whilst at the same time navigating the changes in her own body due to the menopause. Catherine Newman skilfully articulates the awkwardness surrounding all things menopausal and injects humour, making it feel real and relatable.

Although some family secrets are unearthed over the course of the week, for me this book wasn’t about a big reveal. It was more about the reasons why we choose not to share some things, how we feel about those decisions later in our lives and the role that memory plays in justifying our choices. It’s about how our relationships evolve yet our emotions stay the same and how we deal with the cracks that appear as relationships change.

Sometimes you read a book at just the right time; it resonates so completely you feel like the author has read your mind. As I watch my own children hurtle towards adulthood and I experience the shift in familial relationships where the ‘cared for’ become the ‘carers’, I can totally empathise with Rocky’s situation, her feelings and her fears.

Sandwich is a brilliantly observed snapshot of life and human emotions, a stand out read for me, I loved it.

Rocky and her family have been to the same holiday home in Cape Cod for years, ever since the kids were tiny. Those kids are now grown ups so it is a very different dynamic that Rocky is still coming to terms with especially when her elderly parents join them for two days.

Set over the one week of their stay, we witness the family as they experience the ups and downs that anyone who has been on a multi-generational family holiday will be only to aware of! Lots of laughs and bickering, as well as some poignant reminiscing.

Believable and relatable, this was a lovely read!