Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

A Novel

By: Gabrielle Zevin

Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have heard before.

"Delightful and absorbing." —The New York Times • "Utterly brilliant." —John Green

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, GoodReads, Oprah Daily

From the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.

These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.

©2022 Gabrielle Zevin (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • WINGATE PRIZE NOMINEE • LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK CLUB PICK

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, TIME, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Oprah Daily, Slate, Self.com, Bookpage, Kirkus, SheReads, GoodReads, Goop, and The What List

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year • A Jimmy Fallon Book Club Pick • A Time Must-Read Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • BookPage Best Fiction of the Year

"Delightful and absorbing...Zevin burns precisely zero calories arguing that game designers are creative artists of the highest order. Instead, she accepts that as a given, and wisely so, for the best of them plainly are...Expansive and entertaining...Dozens of Literary Gamers will cherish the world she’s lovingly conjured. Meanwhile, everyone else will wonder what took them so long to recognize in video games the beauty and drama and pain of human creation."—Tom Bissell, The New York Times

"A tour de force... A moving demonstration of the blended power of fiction and gaming....Zevin describes herself as 'a lifelong gamer.' That level of experience could very well have produced a story of hermetically sealed nostalgia impenetrable to anyone who doesn’t still own a copy of 'Space Invaders.' But instead, she’s written a novel that draws any curious reader into the pioneering days of a vast entertainment industry too often scorned by bookworms. And with the depth and sensitivity of a fine fiction writer, she argues for the abiding appeal of the flickering screen."—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“Whatever its subject, when a novel is powerful enough, it transports us readers deep into worlds not our own. That's true of Moby Dick, and it's certainly true of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which renders the process of designing a great video game as enthralling as the pursuit of that great white whale….There are…smart ruminations here about cultural appropriation, given that the game, Ichigo, is inspired by Japanese artist Hokusai's famous painting The Great Wave at Kanagawa….It's a big, beautifully written novel about an underexplored topic, that succeeds in being both serious art and immersive entertainment.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

Beautiful

This is one of those rare books that only come around once in a blue moon. It is so good and so deep As a masterclass in character development. Everyone has an arc. I am still digesting the layers of nuance and subtlety. Listening to this is like savoring the greatest peach ever grown.

Loved, loved, loved it!

I'm predicting here that this will be on the NYT list of ten best books of the year; it just moved to the top of my list. Deeply defined characters and their nuanced relationships combine with themes of love, friendship, art, feminism, disability, and work to give this book so much staying power in my brain that frequently can't remember what I read the previous week. Many reviewers have noted you don't have to be a gamer to like it, but I will say it made me want to go explore the gaming world more. Performance was also excellent.

tomorrow... an excellent listen.

well crafted. intriguing characters. good setting of game writers and a take on romance and friendship, collaboration and competition. top notch.
One of the things Zevin does particularly well is create (and detail even-handedly) personal conflicts between the characters. In fact, a more apt title might be Both Sides, the name of a game that gets developed in the book. The different perspectives on the events are meticulously thought out and insightful.

Loved this book!

An original story that captures both contemporary gamers and old -fashioned themes of love, grief, coming of age, and more. I thought the reader(s) did a wonderful job. So glad I listened to this.

Could not stop listening

This book kept me and my family captivated driving 8 hours through Maine. The character development is exceptional.

Today

Today, I finished Tomorrow and loved every minute of it! It made me laugh and cry, but it made me want to play!

Loved It

This was a fantastic book. I loved it. It made me feel every emotion.

Heartwarming and engaging

I loved the storyline, I loved the characters and the performance. I listened over a few days and laughed, cried and feel sad that it ended.
My sons are gamers and I don’t get them. Now I have a higher respect for their experiences and interest in their games. I’m a big fan of ‘storytelling’ and now I understand that games is just a new media for storytelling. Whom am I to tell them to get their stored from the medias that I have been brought up with,..?
I also think the dialogues were very genuine and engaging. I think I will listen to it again soon,

Exquisitely written

Even though I know zero about video-gaming, this book gave an intriguing glimpse into that world. Compelling characters - flaws and all. An award-worthy novel.

Finally, A STORY.

It has been some time since I just read a fantastic story...nothing too focused on romance, mystery, sadness etc... it honestly had me feel every emotion in the book. In my opinion, it was interesting from start to finish, I was never bored. I am so beyond happy I got this one. I loved the imperfections of the characters, and the way the plot resembled life rather than something made with pandering in mind. If you don't like it, dysentery for you!