Skip content
Celebrate indie bookstores with our limited-time sale! Shop the sale
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
IBD balloon logo

Shop the sale

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!

Shop now

This Time Tomorrow

The tender and witty new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Narrator Marin Ireland

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 8 hours 31 minutes
Language English
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Brought to you by Penguin.

A fiendishly clever, nostalgic, and tender novel about adolescence and middle age, expectation and anticipation, and how we must cherish what we have while there is still time . . .


If you could go back, would you do things differently?

Alice Stern isn't ready to turn forty. She thought she'd have more time to figure it all out. Above all, she thought she'd have more time with her father, Leonard Stern, an eccentric novelist - but he's lying in a hospital bed and Alice isn't sure if she'll hear his voice again.

When she falls asleep outside their old apartment on the night before her birthday, she's surprised to be greeted the next morning by a much younger Leonard, with a sixteenth birthday card for a teenage Alice who, far from clinging to her youth, is hurtling towards adulthood . . .

Alice soon discovers how she got back here, to 1996 and her sixteenth birthday, and realises she can keep on coming, whenever she chooses. But faced each time with different versions of her life, and the consequences of her decisions, it's on her not to lose sight of what she wants most: some time back with Leonard . . .

With her celebrated humour, insight, and heart, Emma Straub cleverly turns all the traditional time travel tropes on their head and delivers a different kind of love story - about the lifelong, reverberating relationship between a parent and child.

'I just finished This Time Tomorrow and I'm crying at its message and its honestly and its utter beauty. And now I have to go call my mom' Jodi Picoult
'A gorgeous and witty storyteller' Liane Moriarty
'A master of the domestic ensemble drama' Time

© Emma Straub 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Emma Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, All Adults Here and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in twenty countries. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.

IBD balloon logo

Shop the sale

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!

Shop now

Reviews

Straub has made a mastery of witty, warm novels that spin modern tales with literary flair. Her fourth might be her best. A clever, nostalgic, romantic tale. Part-Russian Doll, part-David Nicholls, it has the makings of a dreamy, witty, contemporary classic This time-travelling take on a hypothetical return to 1996 and the protagonist's 16th birthday will be enough to remind you to cherish what you have A tender tale of time travel. Straub strips back the layers to reveal what's important. It makes you want to stop what you're doing and call your loved ones immediately Her most emotionally resonant work yet ... a complex tale that doesn't feel the slightest bit complicated Has a lot of heart, some satisfying plot twists and a bittersweet, open ended finale A tender, witty David Nicholls-esque tale of familial love Full of deftly managed plot twists, it's both fun and poignant A wonderfully bittersweet story willed with humour, compassion and poignancy Not every book teaches you something, but Emma Straub's insightful novel does. Witty observations and beautiful writing Delightfully nostalgic but the beauty of it rests in its tenderness and wisdom - a reminder of what's important and what we should cherish in life Poignant Shines with humour and warmth Delightful Can't recommend this deeply moving and pleasurable book more This autobiographical novel is delightfully nostalgic but the beauty of it rests in its tenderness and wisdom - a reminder of what's important and what we should cherish in life Heartfelt A teasing time-slip novel, imbued with all Straub's trademark humour and humanity This New York-set story about time travel will break your heart An excellent time-travelling novel about adolescence and second chances from the always brilliant Emma Straub A wonderful book . . . about how we need to cherish those we have lost This grown-up take on Freaky Friday balances humour and poignancy so well Alice is a joy of a character . . . Straub brings the bittersweet passing of youth to adulthood to life in vivid detail, with a story steeped in 1990s nostalgia. It's a book to devour Magical, heart-warming and insightful . . . Warm, wryly funny and melancholic, This Time Tomorrow asks the big questions of life while revelling in 90s nostalgia and the allure of New York City in the fall Emotionally resonant. Captivating I just finished This Time Tomorrow and I'm crying at its message and its honestly and its utter beauty. And now I have to go call my mom This Time Tomorrow is a beautifully made, elegant music box of a novel that sets in motion its clever clockwork of delight-then breaks your heart with its bittersweet, lingering song If I could time travel, I'd go back just far enough to start Emma Straub's beautiful novel This Time Tomorrow again for the first time. The pages brim with tenderness and an appreciation for what we had and who we were. I could not have loved it more A witty, warm novel about love and letting go, This Time Tomorrow is a rare gem. Emma Straub is such an elegant storyteller - I couldn't put it down Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow is that rare one-in-a-million novel that not only pulls you wholly into itself, but leaves a lasting mark when it finally releases you. Never has Straub's writing been more incisive, clever, and emotionally generous-which is really saying something. The kind of book that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you call the people you love. Exceptional Time travel is a popular trope in fiction, and Straub deploys it brilliantly in her effervescent new novel. .... Straub is an expert chronicler of social mores and the inner lives of her (mostly) bourgeois characters, and here she delivers a surefire bestseller The always delightful, deeply beloved Emma Straub returns with a novel that seems like her take on 13-going-on-30.... It's Straub, so you know it's going to be funny, touching, and filled with family drama A heartfelt father-daughter story that breathes fresh life into the concept of time travel With her celebrated humour, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story Praise for Emma Straub 'A gorgeous and witty storyteller' Funny, poignant and beautifully observed Straub writes beautifully and amusingly . . . hard to beat for sheer charm and gentle wit Smart and entertaining Hugely talented . . . intelligent holiday reading Warm and big-hearted . . . leaves you smiling for days Straub writes with such verve and sympathetic understanding of her characters . . . Reading this novel has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits It's the beautifully drawn, vibrant characters that make this smart, compelling novel so irresistible A funny and insightful look at love and relationships A smart, cool sensibility Lovely, satisfying Smart and fresh, offering new insights into the lives of people all around us Thoughtful and hilarious It would be easy to compare Straub to other masters of the genre like Meg Wolitzer or Jennifer Egan, but she's already a master in her own right Wise and often hilarious Readers will devour this witty and warmly satisfying novel A precise and observant writer whose supple prose carries the story along without a snag. Straub's characters are a quirky and interesting bunch . . . it's a pleasure spending time with them Devilishly observed Sprinkled with humour and insight Straub is consistently excellent Clever, complex and really rather lovely Emma Straub is such a funny and brilliant writer and this time-travelling tale is a charming exploration of what it would be like to find yourself younger and surrounded by the people you love when they're still at the height of their power Enlivened by Straub's typically acerbic prose and quirky characters, not to mention a good dose of 90s nostalgia One of the most moving and intelligent time travel novels I have ever read. Nostalgic, wise, funny, and filled with love Deliciously warm and nostalgic Expand reviews
Celebrate indie bookstores with our limited-time sale! Shop the sale