What are good book club discussion questions for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow?

Spoiler-free questions to get the conversation going: The title is borrowed from Macbeth's soliloquy on meaningless time. What expectations did that framing set before you opened the book, and how did the novel push back on them?; Zevin opens in a specific time and place rather than with backstory. What does that structural choice signal about how she wants us to read Sam and Sadie's relationship?; The novel insists on calling what Sam and Sadie do 'work' rather than 'art' or 'play.' How does Zevin complicate the boundaries between those three categories, and is she arguing one is primary?; Games promise the player infinite second chances. How does Zevin use that promise as both metaphor and critique, and where does the metaphor strain or break?; Consider how the book handles Sam's disability and pain, Sadie's gender in the industry, and Marx's racial identity. Is Zevin making an argument about whose suffering gets aestheticized and whose gets erased?.

What food and drinks should I serve at a Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow book club?

Food: Cheese and bread board, Bowl of clementines, and Salted dark chocolate squares. Drinks: Black coffee or strong tea, Dry red wine, and Japanese whisky, neat.

Deep Discussion night

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and TomorrowBook club questions, food & host guide

Gabrielle Zevin

4.2 (26)

A deep discussion book club night for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.

Clubs that like layered, character-driven literary fiction and arguing about what a book is really 'about'

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A decades-spanning novel about two collaborators building video games together, Zevin's book uses play as a lens on art, identity, grief, and the strange intimacy of creative partnership.

Why it works for clubs

Rich thematic terrain: authorship, disability, gender, race, and the ethics of creative collaboration
Formally inventive structure with shifting POVs and time jumps invite close analysis
Games-as-metaphor opens questions about agency, repetition, and what counts as 'real' experience
Moral ambiguity in nearly every major relationship resists tidy readings

Themes & mood

creative partnership grief play and art identity ambition

Browse all themes →

Reading level

Moderate

Pages

416

Warm-up questions

1 The title is borrowed from Macbeth's soliloquy on meaningless time. What expectations did that framing set before you opened the book, and how did the novel push back on them?
2 Zevin opens in a specific time and place rather than with backstory. What does that structural choice signal about how she wants us to read Sam and Sadie's relationship?

Digging in

1 The novel insists on calling what Sam and Sadie do 'work' rather than 'art' or 'play.' How does Zevin complicate the boundaries between those three categories, and is she arguing one is primary?
2 Games promise the player infinite second chances. How does Zevin use that promise as both metaphor and critique, and where does the metaphor strain or break?
3 Consider how the book handles Sam's disability and pain, Sadie's gender in the industry, and Marx's racial identity. Is Zevin making an argument about whose suffering gets aestheticized and whose gets erased?
4 Marx is repeatedly described in terms that flirt with idealization. Is he a fully realized character, a deliberate archetype, or a structural device, and what does your answer say about the novel's moral center?

Going deep

1 Critics have split on whether the romantic-but-not-romance arc between Sam and Sadie is the novel's great insight or its great evasion. Which reading do you find more defensible, and what textual evidence supports it?
2 Zevin uses embedded games, alternate selves, and recursive references to other texts (Shakespeare, Hokusai, Oregon Trail) to layer the narrative. Is this intertextuality doing genuine thematic work, or is it largely decorative? What is she ultimately arguing about authorship and influence?

You're invited

A Serious Night on Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Bring the book, a flagged passage, and an opinion you are willing to defend. We are reading slowly and talking deeply.

Trivia

1

From which Shakespeare play does the novel borrow its title?

Answer: Macbeth
2

In what year was the novel first published?

Answer: 2022
3

Who wrote the novel?

Answer: Gabrielle Zevin
4

What Japanese artist's famous wave print is referenced in the book?

Answer: Katsushika Hokusai
5

What industry do the central characters work in?

Answer: Video game design
6

On which U.S. coast do significant portions of the story take place?

Answer: Both, but much of it on the East Coast (Cambridge/Boston) and later California
7

What classic educational computer game is referenced as a formative childhood text?

Answer: The Oregon Trail
8

Is this novel Zevin's debut?

Answer: No; she had published several earlier novels, including The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry