Overall a decent novel but not one of my favourites by this author. Will definitely keep reading her work though as she is incredibly funny

Rocky looks forward every year to the family holiday in Cape Cod. The house is run down, the two kids are now adults, her parents are becoming more frail as they get older and she herself is suffering raging hot flushes and mood swings from the menopause. Rocky is someone who loves perhaps a little too much, in that she spends a lot of time worrying about loss and anticipating grief. This time in particular, the break is momentous in several ways as secrets emerge, memories are rekindled and relationships affirmed. An engaging, bittersweet story of family, particularly motherhood and its joys and troubles, which I very much enjoyed. The characters are likeable but believably flawed, and there is a strong sense of how it is wonderful to see children growing up and finding their own way, but also how sad it is when they are no longer those little beings totally dependent on their parents. The writing is very sensual- you can almost smell the sea breeze, feel the coolof the pond water and taste the food being prepared, including the titular sandwiches. It was great to be a part of this family for a while.

I haven’t read We all want impossible things but I’ve heard amazing things about it so when I saw this I requested it immediately. Now I need to rush out and buy her first book too! As a woman of a *cough* certain age, I related to Rocky so hard. Although my kids are still much younger I’m also facing peri menopause and nostalgia for my youth and summer’s past, Sigh. Catherine’s writing is whimsical and beautiful, with humour and wit.i adored this book and will recommend it to everyone. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher,

I so enjoyed reading this book -it was a joy from start to finish and I can't wait to start telling people about it. I hadn't read Catherine Newman's previous novel 'We all want impossible things' but I am definitely going to, along with anything else she writes in the future.

It's a simple plot - a family holiday with (nearly) grown up children, their parents and their grandparents. A precious week in the year where our protagonist Rocky gets to spend time with her beloved children and her parents in their rustic, beach house rental in Cape Cod. And that's it, we get to see their week in Cape Cod where nothing very extraordinary happens, but it's the warmth and wit with which this book is written that makes it so special and the pages fly by. Things do happen but I don't want to give any spoilers (such as they are) so I would just urge readers to pick this up - it's a short book, but the family will stay with you a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

On the face of it this is just a description of a family's annual vacation week on Cape Cod, but it puts Rocky (Rachel) in the middle of events, an empty-nester sandwiched between her grown-up kids and her frail parents, slap bang in the middle of her menopause, which she describes with amusing bewilderedness (I screen grabbed quite a few pages here because I could relate so much, especially the word finding), while at the same time reflecting back to when her kids were young and she had two miscarriages - or were they? (Seriously, it wasn't hard to figure out with all the cryptic clues).

There really isn't much plot but you enjoy the closeness this family has and the love they feel for each other, even though they bicker all the time and lie to each other because they want to protect their family from uncomfortable truths about medical histories or past events.

It's a searingly honest account of what it's like to be a woman with all the issues that can entail.

I really enjoyed this perfect mixture of funny and sad -
all the different feelings that can exist inside you at the same time.

The only thing I didn't like were the descriptions of all those weird American sandwiches!

4.5 stars

This one wasn’t for me, I’m afraid. Very little happens in the week they spend on holiday on Cape Cod but that is usually fine for me – I like explorations of family relationships, uncovering of past secrets, a glimpse of someone else’s lives so this should have been right up my street. Unfortunately I just didn’t like the main character and found her really irritating despite being a similar age and time of life. Some of the side characters, especially her husband, feel very underwritten and it just didn’t quite hit the mark, I’m afraid.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Based in America, this novel explores a family, Rocky , her husband Nick , their adult children and Rocky’s parents.

Each year, the family return to a beach rental on Cape Cod. This holiday home holds special memories of over 20 years of the family‘s lives. The changing dynamics of the family and the different stages of life are written with understanding and relatability.

Being of a similar age to Rocky. I could relate to many of the topics explored in the book. Growing older and looking back on how life had changed while still dealing with adult children and elderly parents with the added bonus of menopausal symptoms is something a lot of readers will emphasise with.

Written with understanding and humour this book was an enjoyable family based novel .

Another great read by Catherine Newman. Set against the backdrop of a week on Cape Cod, Sandwich is a heartwarming portrayal of family dynamics, motherhood and the menopause. The story follows Rocky, a relatable main character, as she deals with the challenges of getting older and her family growing up. It’s both a touching and humorous book that will make you think about your own family and life!
Highly recommended for readers who enjoy captivating and emotionally resonant reads

A glorious book. Just the most brilliant portrayal of family, life, motherhood, menopause, mistakes, regrets and joy. I think i loved it even more than We all Want Impossible Things. The pacing, the dialogue and the descriptive quality of one week on Cape Cod was all perfectly formed. Rocky is a relatable and believable protagonist. It will make you laugh and cry and think. Highly recommend.

Catherine Newman has a very specific writing style that moves away from the 'He said, she said' standard fictional dialogue with a narrative that requires focus. It's a style I've not seen to often but one I really enjoy.

In Sandwich, the story revolves around Rocky (Rachel) and her family as they spend a week in a beachhouse on The Cape. It's highly emotional, with Rocky reflecting on the fact that her parents and children are older and do not need her in the way they did 10 years ago.

It's a great read, although quite sad in places. Im not sure if I particularly like Rocky - she's a meddler and a little narcissitic - but her actions come from the heart and you know, as you read on, that she's got some major emotional baggage.

Like her previous novel, food plays an important role and the descriptions of the sandwiches alone had me salivating.

I also loved the scenery setting of Cape Cod. It sounds a beautiful place to visit and made me long to feel the sand under my feet and hear the ocean again (30 days and counting!)

A great read with some interesting subject matters, Catherine is an auto-buy author for me now, I can't wait to see what she does next.

Trigger warning: Miscarriage

Thanks to the publisher for approving my request on Netgalley and also to Alison for sending me a proof!

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This was a beautifully written gentle novel about Rocky and her family who spend their usual week long vacation at Cape Cod.
The book follows the interactions between Rocky and her calm husband Nick plus their two grown up children and Rocky’s aging parents.It is about menopause and past regret,a long term marriage,feeling the loss of your children’s childhood but embracing their present selves and about the realisation that your parents are getting old and more frail.It is about family and life and it’s myriad of emotions.It is about the seaside and being together,the old and the young and those sandwiched between..It made me laugh out loud especially at Rocky’s battle with the menopause symptoms(which I empathised with too having been through it)It also left me heartbroken and fully invested in this flawed but incredibly close and loving family.
A wonderful read

Back in 1931 RC Sherriff had his affectionate novel about the "drama of the undramatic", The Fortnight in September,, recounting in detail a family's annual trip to the same seaside resort in England published. This novel, Sandwich seems like a modern update based in America but delaing with the same landscape of describing an ordinary family and their ordinary hopes, worries, petty grievances and annoyance, love an daffection for one another as they have their annual weekly coastal holiday. Nothing of much import really happens. The book is comical in places. However, for me it lacks the charm of Sherriff's book, perhaps because it is contemporary. I have enough family minuitiae to deal with in my own life without reading about someone else's! The book is well written but didn't hit the mark for me in my present state of mind.

I loved We All Want Impossible Things so was excited to read Sandwich.
Every summer Rocky and her family- husband Nick, their adult children and Rocky’s parents spend a week in a beach rental on Cape Cod. In recent years they’ve been joined by their son Jamie’s girlfriend.
I absolutely loved this short novel which made me laugh so much but it’s also a moving and emotional read. I loved the Cape Cod setting, it’s a place where I spent a summer 35 years ago and I’d love to return. The author is so good at relationships and I particularly liked the portrayals of Rocky’s relationship with her husband, her daughter Willa and her parents. The descriptions of the menopause were brilliant, so true and made me laugh out loud. I loved spending time with Rocky and I felt the novel was over too soon. 4.5 stars
Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Catherine Newman has been one of my favourite writers for something like twenty years - and I adored We All Want Impossible Things - so when I say I was desperate to read this book... And I think I may have loved it even more than Impossible Things? Middle aged and menopausal Rocky is spending a week in Connecticut with her family - husband, almost-grown (and brilliant, charming) children, and, for a couple of days in there, her ageing parents.

Catherine Newman writes so brilliantly, wisely, kindly about hard things with such a light touch. This book made me laugh and cry. Everyone - including Chicken the cat - felt entirely real and I felt like I was on the vacation with them. I was bereft when I finished reading and had to return to real life.

Narrated by the self-deprecating Rocky with a pithy humour, Sandwich spans a week in the holiday let she and her husband have rented for almost twenty years. They and their grown-up children cram themselves into the tiny cottage, joined half-way through the week by Rocky’s parents. It’s a holiday like any other over the past two decades but by the time the family goes their separate ways, secrets will have been revealed, an understanding that somethings must end gained and the joy of new beginnings embraced.
Sandwich lives up to its blurb’s feelgood billing while dealing with issues of mental health, ageing and loss, unafraid to explore how it feels to be menopausal or reproductive health and the right to choose. Gazing at her children with adoration, Rocky remembers the early years of devastating exhaustion, the desperation for an uninterrupted night’s sleep and the constant anxiety of parenthood. When her parents arrive, she can hardly bare to witness their increasing frailty, well-practiced at anticipatory grief. She’s an engaging narrator, likeable and believable, given to a tactlessness that both amuses and embarrasses her children who adore her in return as does her husband despite frequent tongue lashings. A thoroughly enjoyable novel, which may not stay with me for long but comforting and entertaining, nevertheless, and far from frivolous, too.

Sandwich follows a family over the course of a week as they take their annual holiday to Cape Cod. There were some funny moments in this book and also some powerful themes. I did not love this book but can see that Catherine Newman’s writing is powerful and resonates with her readers.

This story really struck a chord with me, being mid 50s and menopausal! I really understood the character and what she was going through! A short story so read over 2 days! A great mixture of terrible teens, marriage problems and elderly parents, plus the dreaded menopause. Second book by this author, always enjoyable

I enjoyed Catherine Newman's We All Want Impossible Things so I appreciated the opportunity to read her new novel - Sandwich. She captures what it's like to be a woman struggling with menopausal symptoms, marital strains, ageing parents, motherhood.

The most luminous, passionate account of family love I've ever read. Rocky, a self confessed narcissist aged 54 is the filling in the annual holiday sandwich that has her devoted elderly parents on one side, and her two grown up, and moved away, children, plus girlfriend Maya, on the other. Not to mention the huge old cat Chicken, who comes with them.

As they drift back into their usual routine - the beach tram at 1pm, fresh lobster, ice cream at the end - the family shimmers with life, joy and sadness. Huge secrets are finally released. Ricky's mom has a health incident, which shows the fragility of life. The possibility of new life points to the perpetuation of life.

Rocky is going through menopause with disbelief and hilarity at its embarrassments. Her husband Nick, the analytical sort, is not prone to sharing his feelings, and it causes occasional friction. Rocky swims, she loves, she grieves. What a wonderful portrait of mid life.

I gulped down this sandwich in two very satisfying bites.

This is a proper heartwarming, a family I felt I knew.
Tons of touching moments that are all so relatable, no matter what the topic was, marriage, babies, aging parents.
It made me all nostalgic for my own childhood and long for a sandwich on the beach. 😁
Very enjoyable