Book Title:  Tomorrow
Author: Graham Swift
Publishing Company: Random House Canada
Year:  2007
# of Pages: 255
ISBN:  978-0-307-35590-4
$32.95 Canada 
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Reviewed By:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

"You're asleep, my angels, I assume.  So, to my amazement and relief, is your father, like a man finding it in him to sleep on the eve of his execution."  So begins Tomorrow by Graham Swift, author of seven previous novels and winner of the Booker Prize for Last Orders.

After such an exciting beginning, this book proved to be a disappointment.  The story is the rambling, stream-of-conscious thoughts of a mother addressed to her twin children who will be sixteen on the next day.  That is the day she and her husband have long ago selected to reveal to the children a great secret that will change their lives forever.  It is sorely tempting to reveal this not-so-shocking plot point and spare the would-be reader from tumbling through this work.

Most of the torrent of words reflect far too much information for a parent ever to reveal to a child (does any child really need or want to know that Dad slept with Mom's two roommates before he got around to her?).  This is a complete work of "telling" rather than "showing" writing, and although there is no shortage of the mother's emotion about each and every incident, no matter how insignificant, it does become tedious to read.  Because of the rambling nature of the tale, events are revealed out of chronological order and often repeated or retold in only a slightly varying way.   

Families who might one day have to make such an announcement (and wouldn't it be delightful if the subject of the book were revealed on its cover so they could know this might pertain to them?) may find some comfort, if not guidance, from this work.  Otherwise, there is little in the story to engage the reader.  Sadly, the loving bond of a family-which is supposed to be the focus of this work-never completely emerges from these thoughts of a mother in the wee small hours of the night.  Given the nature of the shocking revelation, this is a story that might have been much better told from the viewpoint of the father who, realistically, could never have slept soundly on such a night.