If you liked
Books like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is what happens when a literary novelist takes the medium of video games as seriously as American literary fiction has historically taken painting or music. Gabrielle Zevin's 2022 novel works on three decades of creative partnership between Sam and Sadie and pays it off without making the partnership a romance. If you finished it and needed another book that treated friendship, work, and grief with that level of patience, these are the read-alikes our editors keep recommending.
The shortlist
What to read next
Normal Peopleby Sally Rooney
“Normal People by Sally Rooney 2018 review. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Sligo town, attend Trinity College Dublin together, and orbit each other across four years of intermittent intimacy. The literary-fiction novel that defined the Rooney moment.”
The Goldfinchby Donna Tartt
“The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 2013 review. Theo Decker, thirteen, survives a Metropolitan Museum bombing that kills his mother and ends up with a stolen painting that defines the next decade of his life. Pulitzer Prize 2014.”
Klara and the Sunby Kazuo Ishiguro
“Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 2021 review. Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches the children passing by the storefront and waits to be chosen. Late-career Ishiguro at his most patient and most strange.”
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugoby Taylor Jenkins Reid
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 review. An aging Hollywood icon agrees to tell the true story of her career and her seven marriages, but only to an unknown journalist. The TikTok-era literary fiction novel that defined contemporary Hollywood-memoir-fiction.”
Hamnetby Maggie O'Farrell
“Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 2020 review. The death of William Shakespeare's eleven-year-old son and the four years before Hamlet is written. The Women's Prize winning novel about marriage, grief, and the play that came out of it.”
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Storeby James McBride
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 2023 review. A 1972 skeleton found at the bottom of a Pottstown, Pennsylvania well sends the novel back to a 1930s neighborhood where Black, Jewish, and immigrant families lived alongside each other. The most important American novel of 2023.”
FAQ
Common questions about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow read-alikes
- What is the closest match for Tomorrow x3?
- Normal People. Same intense long-arc relationship at the center, same patient prose, same willingness to let the central pairing not resolve cleanly. Rooney writes the relationship as romance and Zevin writes it as creative partnership but the structural moves are the same.
- I want another novel about creative work.
- The Goldfinch (painting and art-restoration as obsession), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (career as identity), and Hamnet (the four-year gap before Hamlet was written). Each handles creative work from a different angle but with the same patient care.
- I want another book with a friendship at the center.
- A Little Life is the maximalist canonical pick (not reviewed here yet). Normal People and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store are the next best matches in our catalog.
- More Gabrielle Zevin?
- The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (2014) is the obvious follow-up and reads in about three days. Young Jane Young (2017) is more political. Neither is reviewed here yet but both should be on your library list.
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