On the shelf: Tomorrow

By Courtney Warren

The New York Times recently released their list of the best books of the twenty-first century, and on that list was Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

A few weeks ago, my best friend Lindsay called and said Millsaps College was having an author talk, and she had gotten us tickets. We had so much fun going to meet Zevin, listen to her talk, and get our books signed. I read the book when it was first released, but read it again in preparation for the event, and let me tell you – it’s wonderful. 

It’s one of those books that is hard to buy into just from reading the front flap, but according to the publisher, “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.”

If you enjoy characters you can immediately love and want to see succeed, this is the book for you. If you like hard-hitting lines and literature that makes you a little uncomfortable and also think deeply about yourself and your own friendships, this book is for you. If you need a reminder that play is important and we as humans can all connect from playing, then this book is for you. 

I hope you enjoy Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and also check out the rest of The New York Times’ Books of the Twenty-first Century list.