Wreck by Catherine Newman (and a Cocktail Recipe) for Thanksgiving

By Rebecca Foster on November 27, 2025

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! Though it’s just an ordinary Thursday here in the UK, I always strive to mark the occasion. Today, it’ll just be with a slice of pumpkin pie. But I’ve also been lucky this year to be invited to two Thanksgiving feasts, the first (vegetarian) last Saturday with a few North American neighbours from my book club and the next one (vegan) coming up tomorrow with university friends, one of whom is half-American. Meal #1 was splendid and kept us fed with leftovers for four days afterwards (I’m sure the second will be equally delicious and bounteous). We contributed mini squashes stuffed with leek and cauliflower macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and onion gravy, a pumpkin pie, and nibbles and cocktails. I adapted this pumpkin pie martini for J (too acrid and too sweet for me) but the rest of us had a signature cocktail I invented. Recipe below.

Childhood propaganda; pardoned turkey; first of two groaning plates

Adorable squashes; plenteous mash

Cocktail just visible in lower right!

Friendsgiving Berry Cobbler

(Serves 1; or multiply by the number needed!)

50 mL Bombay Bramble gin

20 mL fresh lemon juice

20 mL homemade simple syrup

5 mL Grand Marnier

5 mL cranberry sauce or lingonberry jam

Mix all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker, shake well, and strain through a fine sieve to serve. Garnish with fresh cranberries, frozen blackberries and a twist of orange peel. Top up with ginger ale to taste.

Last month I reviewed Wreck by Catherine Newman for Shelf Awareness. It was one of my Most Anticipated books of the second half of the year and has a sequence set on Thanksgiving, which is reason enough to reprint it here.

In Catherine Newman’s third novel, Wreck, a winsome sequel set two years on from Sandwich, a family encounters medical uncertainties and ethical quandaries.

Rocky is a fiftysomething food writer and mother of two young adults. After Rocky’s mother’s death, her 92-year-old father moved into the in-law apartment. Rocky and Nick’s son, Jamie, now works as a junior analyst for a New York City consulting firm. The engaging plot turns on two upsetting incidents. “In one single day, in two different directions, my life swerves from its path,” Rocky divulges. First, she notices a mysterious skin rash, which, along with abnormal blood work results, eventually points to an autoimmune liver condition [primary sclerosing cholangitis]; second, news comes that Miles Zapf, one of Jamie’s high school classmates, died in a collision between his car and a train. Was it suicide or an accident? A moral complication arises: Jamie’s firm advised the railroad company.

As one New England fall unfurls, leading to an emotionally climactic Thanksgiving Day, Rocky airs her fears over her prognosis, her father’s infirmity, and her children’s future. Empathy is a two-edged sword—she can’t stop imagining what Miles Zapf’s mother is going through. Newman (We All Want Impossible Things) writes autofiction that’s full of quirky one-liners and particularly resonates with anyone facing mental health and midlife challenges. There’s family drama aplenty, but also the everyday coziness of family rituals, especially those involving food. This warm hug of a novel ponders how to respond graciously when life gets messy and answers aren’t clear-cut.

(Reprinted with permission from Shelf Awareness.)

In short, it’s enjoyable and effortlessly readable, but Rocky is A Bit Much, and after you’ve read Sandwich this is really just more of the same.