Wreck

Wreck is the kind of book that pulls up a chair, pours the wine, and dives deep—equal parts hilarious, sharp, and achingly sincere. It’s like spending hours with the friend who sees your mess and loves you more for it. I didn’t just read it—I felt known by it. A luminous, laugh-out-loud triumph by Newman.

Alison Espach, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding People

Endorsing a new Catherine Newman novel feels a bit like endorsing puppies or chocolate cake. It's a new Catherine Newman novel. Of course you want to read it. Wreck is a delight. .. Newman's prose is laugh-out-loud funny. It's also profound. I underlined so many passages in this treasure of a novel. I

J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs

I loved it! A gorgeously human, tender-hearted, and delightfully funny exploration of the anxieties that beset all of us, and the loving relationships and irrepressible joy that gets us through.

Nussaibah Younis, author of international bestseller Fundamentally

Catherine Newman’s new novel is a rare thing: both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply attuned to the quiet devastations of illness, grief, and family life. In Rocky... Newman gives us a narrator whose fierce intelligence and generous heart make even the most ordinary moments shimmer with grace.

Meghan O'Rourke, New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Kingdom

Catherine Newman has my heart . . . . Newman is my dream writer, and she channels the perfect cocktail of humanity into her characters, especially Rocky. Rocky is funny and dry and emotional and sometimes crazy and always loving, so loving, of her family, even as she struggles and panics. It’s a gift to get to be on the quest with her, and learn alongside her, about how to be alive, to be a person, to be good, to be worthy.

Lithub (Most Anticipated Books)

Newman excels at showing how sorrow and joy coexist in everyday life. She masterfully balances a modern exploration of grief with truly laugh-out-loud lines . . . . A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

How comforting, how satisfying, and how delicious to be once again in the world of Rocky and her family where everyday life bangs against potential disaster and somehow muddles its way through. Infectiously funny and surprisingly moving, Wreck reminds us that we are each, in our way, trying to make sense of the big things with some very small tools - and that love in the end is the thing that saves us.

Rachel Joyce

Utterly joyful.

Oprah Daily, "25 Best Books of Fall 2025"

Rocky is obsessed with a local train crash and her own undiagnosed illness in this honest, hilarious and heartbreaking follow-up to Sandwich. You’ll savour the prose from the very first line.

People

As protagonist Rocky reckons with a local tragedy, she learns that neither cyberchondria nor wit (and she’s hilarious) will prevent life’s progress.

Los Angeles Times

I didn’t know I needed a sequel to Sandwich until the news of this release hit my inbox, and boy am I overjoyed... heartwarming, gripping, and enjoyable... You’ll understand the magic once you read it. Trust me.

The Skimm

Newman brings her signature wit and fast-paced banter to this heartfelt sequel.

Booklist

A warmhearted story about the fragility of life and the bonds of affection that help us weather its most difficult moments... Newman is unafraid to roll up her sleeves and wade into the blessed messiness of family life, presenting Rocky and her clan with both honesty and tenderness in all their complex ordinariness... Wreck’s life-affirming conclusion will leave readers grateful for this helping of Rocky’s gentle wisdom and, almost certainly, hungry for more.

BookPage

Catherine Newman is the funniest and most tender hearted writer alive. I hope people are reading Wreck for years to come. Rocky and everyone in her universe shows as what humans can do and be when we're at our very best.

Daisy Buchanan, author of Insatiable

Another heart wrencher from the incomparable Catherine Newman. She writes about the minutiae of family, love and why we are here with such joy, humour and emotion it almost hurts. I laughed out loud along the way, then the final page had me in tears. Wrecked me!

Claire Daverley, author of Talking at Night

Beautiful, funny, wry, relatable and uplifting… I LOVE her work, it's so clever and comforting and the antidote to these times.

Marian Keyes

I’m a huge fan of Catherine Newman’s insightful writing and the way she lightens potentially heavy subjects with humour… a book about relationships, messy and totally relatable

Good Housekeeping

Darkly funny, achingly emotional, this story explores life’s wreckage and motherhood’s enduring love… an irreverent yet tender read

Woman & Home

I’m in awe of Newman’s talent for finding humour in life’s disasters and indignities. Seriously funny.

Saga

The new queen of the bittersweet novel… balancing genuine laughs with emotional weight and a clear-eyed view of modern family life.

Independent

Hugely enjoyable, absolutely real and thoughtful without ever being over-determined. Newman has an Ephron-esque gift for blending the sharp and the sad and an ability to let us love her creations.

Observer

[A] relatable domestic comedy... Unfiltered and angsty, it’s a novel bubbling with bittersweet laughter.

Mail on Sunday

Balancing laughter with heartbreak, it’s an irreverent yet tender read... deeply relatable.

Woman's Weekly