Literary fiction
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Book of the year
Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow!
Quick take
This moving story of friendship and art-making will have you nostalgic for your favorite childhood video games.
Good to know
Emotional
400+ pages
Nonlinear timeline
Underdog
Synopsis
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 is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that 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. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
1
Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur—a change of two letters that transformed him from a nice, ostensibly Jewish boy to a Professional Builder of Worlds—and for most of his youth, he was Sam, S.A.M. on the hall of fame of his grandfather’s Donkey Kong machine, but mainly Sam.
On a late December afternoon, in the waning twentieth century, Sam exited a subway car and found the artery to the escalator clogged by an inert mass of people, who were gaping at a station advertisement. Sam was late. He had a meeting with his academic adviser that he had been postponing for over a month, but that everyone agreed absolutely needed to happen before winter break. Sam didn’t care for crowds—being in them, or whatever foolishness they tended to enjoy en masse. But this crowd would not be avoided. He would have to force his way through it if he were to be delivered to the aboveground world.
Sam wore an elephantine navy wool peacoat that he had inherited from his roommate, Marx, who had bought it freshman year from the Army Navy Surplus Store in town. Marx had left it moldering in its plastic shopping bag just short of an entire semester before Sam asked if he might borrow it. That winter had been unrelenting, and it was an April nor’easter (April! What madness, these Massachusetts winters!) that finally wore Sam’s pride down enough to ask Marx for the forgotten coat. Sam pretended that he liked the style of it, and Marx said that Sam might as well take it, which is what Sam knew he would say.
Like most things purchased from the Army Navy Surplus Store, the coat emanated mold, dust, and the perspiration of dead boys, and Sam tried not to speculate why the garment had been surplussed. But the coat was far warmer than the windbreaker he had brought from California his freshman year. He also believed that the large coat worked to conceal his size. The coat, its ridiculous scale, only made him look smaller and more childlike.
Why I love it
Emmy Rossum
Award-winning Actress, Producer, Director, and Musician
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow isn’t a romance novel. The main characters never date, when they reference poetry it’s in the context of a single-player game, and the two leads spend large swaths of time separated by distance (or more often, opinions). And yet! The love that Sam and Sadie have for each other is the beating heart of this wonderfully refreshing book about passion, fame, grief, and gaming and made me fall head over heels.
Sam and Sadie have known each other since they were kids, separated by a misunderstanding in adolescence but brought back together in their college years thanks to a chance run-in on a subway platform. What starts off as a brief reunion turns into the most productive partnership of their lives: the creation of a smash-hit video game, the launch of a tech empire, and a financial and artistic freedom beyond their wildest dreams. Sam and Sadie are content with the knowledge that they understand each other better than anyone else ever will. There is intimacy to be found in creative collaboration, something more profound and perhaps even more risky than romance. But is it enough?
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a book that believes in destiny, but a destiny steeped in reality. These characters are complex, lovable, sometimes messy. They bicker and commiserate; they experience great success and devastating failure. But Sam and Sadie are so beautifully painted and deeply human that you can’t help but root for them to live their most abundant lives. I implore you to pick up this book about love in all its forms—I promise you will walk away from it changed.
Member ratings (53,767)
Dana D.
Yorktown Heights, NY
I am SAD this is over wow. For a person who knows nothing about video games, I never wanted this beautiful story to end. The characters are richer than anything I could have ever asked for⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Brett A.
Maplewood, NJ
Wow. I cannot get over T&T&T. From the richness and complexity of the characters, to the unique yet familiar storyline, to the genuine emotion woven throughout - a truly deserving BOTY! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Natalie W.
Houma, LA
I would give this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I loved the writing, didn’t love that it was more of us following characters through their lives instead of a true plot, I’d recommend for book clubs to talk about
Julie A.
Bradenton, FL
Not a book I would’ve thought I would’ve chosen. I solely got it because it was based in Boston & my son is attending college in Boston (not MIT or Harvard!????). I really enjoyed this book! Podcast????????
Ashley C.
Huntsville, AL
I’m a nerd. I just came off the high of reading Lessons in Chemistry and this echoed some of that with a dash of Ready Player One - just so good! You can’t help but invest into Sam, Sadie, and Marx.❤️