In Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, intense friendship and game design are intertwined

polygon.com:

Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a novel about two game designers who are best friends and collaborators. The book is about the love they share in work and play, and how it transcends the boundaries of romantic love and physical spaces. Meeting by chance in a hospital as children, Sadie Green’s and Sam Masur’s lives revolve around games — both use games as a means of escape. Sadie, whose sister is being treated for cancer at the hospital, looks for companionship in her otherwise lonely world. And Sam, who is recovering from a devastating car accident that left him disabled, speaks for the first time since the crash when playing games with Sadie.

Zevin’s novel traces the path the two take to become successful game designers as they partner with Marx Watanabe, a helpful and kind college stage actor turned video game producer. Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow covers both the joy and devastating nature of the video game industry — touching on themes of evolving technology and the challenge of being a woman in these spaces — through the complicated, decade-spanning friendship between Sadie, Sam, and Marx.

Polygon spoke to Zevin about the complexity of love and friendship, the intimate nature of play, the growth of the video game industry, and how that all comes together in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

[Ed. note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

Polygon: What is Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow about? How does it relate to any of your previous work?

Gabrielle Zevin: I find Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow somewhat hard to describe. I’ve been vaguely saying it’s about love art, video games, and time. It’s the story of Sam Masur and Sadie Green, who have a 30-year