Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2019
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A private Mexican villa is the backdrop to this smart, absorbing story of a milestone vacation in a tropical paradise gone wrong, wrong, wrong.
Two families arrive in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Jenna has organized the trip to celebrate her husband's fiftieth birthday - she's been looking forward to it for months. She's sure everything is going to be just perfect - and the margarita refills delivered by the house staff certainly don't hurt, either. What could go wrong?
Yet as the families settle into their vacation routines, their best friends suddenly seem like annoying strangers, and even Jenna's reliable husband, Peter, is sharing clandestine phone calls with someone - but who? Jenna's teenage daughter, Clem, is spending an awful lot of time with Malcolm, whose questionable rep got him expelled from school. Jenna's dream of the ultimate celebration begins to crack and eventually crumbles completely, leaving her wondering whom she can trust, and whether her privileged life is about to be changed forever.
Readers of Emma Straub, Meg Wolitzer and Delia Ephron will love this sharply funny novel. Whether you're putting it in your carry-on to read on the beach or looking to escape the dead-of-winter blues, Tomorrow There Will Be Sun is the perfect companion.
"Reinhardt adroitly navigates the mind of a memorable and unreliable narrator and delivers a page-turner that's both charming and thoughtful." - Publishers Weekly
"The characters are clear and complex, revealing layers instead of slipping into satire... Readers who like sharply observed novels of families falling apart in paradise, like Emma Straub's The Vacationers, will want to try Reinhardt's first novel for adults." - Booklist
"A tense mystery driven by maternal and wifely anxieties." - Kirkus
"The fierce and anxious heroine of this novel is accused of 'not knowing anything about anything,' but Dana Reinhardt knows everything about everything: the emotional zig-zags of travel, the complicated loyalties of longtime friends, the secrets and tensions between teenagers and their parents, and the way that a perfect vacation can turn into something far different, under the flushed and furious sun. A sunny, sharp and whip-smart book." - Daniel Handler, New York Times bestselling author of All the Dirty Parts
"Tomorrow There Will Be Sunis escapist fiction without the empty calories, a witty and wise tale of all the ways reality bites. Dana Reinhardt is the Nora Ephron we've all been missing." - Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of The High Tide Club
"I read Tomorrow There Will Be Sun exactly how it's meant to be read, in one big gulp, ideally sitting beneath an umbrella, with a hibiscus margarita in hand. It's funny and wise, and delivers a gut punch that sent tears rolling down my sunburned cheeks." - Ayelet Waldman, bestselling author of A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life
"This book is a tropical-getaway fantasy, a compulsively honest story about middle age and family life, and, against all odds, a page-turner. Not a word is wasted. I loved it." - Rebecca Stead, New York Times bestselling author of When You Reach Me
"A smart and funny novel about what happens when a family must contend with itself in paradise. If you can't escape to your own gorgeous villa,Tomorrow There Will Be Sun is the next best thing." - Laura Dave, author of Eight Hundred Grapes
"Tomorrow There Will Be Sun begins and ends with the perfectly mixed cocktail. In the pages between, Dana Reinhardt serves us an expert narrative brew of feeling characters, family intrigue, summer escape, and a twist of plot. I urge you: Drink up!" - Katie Williams, author of Tell the Machine Goodnight
"Life cannot be scripted, love may or may not be fixed, and no matter where we are, how pretty the sea or sun, reality crashes in. Reinhardt captures the heartbreak implicit in well-burnished plans immaculately in her debut novel for adults. She takes us to a villa that is open to the air and then shows us how walls get raised, and lowered, among those who think they know each other well. Tomorrow There Will Be Sun is precise, witty, and honest." - Beth Kephart, author of Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir
"Dana Reinhardt has written a sunny subversive novel about cossetted vacationers winding their way through mine-fields (internal and external), in search of the earthly pleasures they somehow believe to be their birthright. Think of it as a beach read--apply sun block, adjust your umbrella--but when you close the book you realize, oh, I get it, there's a tsunami on the way." - Scott Spencer, bestselling author of River Under the Road
This information about Tomorrow There Will Be Sun was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Chelsea Hadley
In her own words...
There's nothing like the first time something wonderful happens to you, like, for example, when you sit down to write your first novel and it actually gets published.
I guess there's nothing quite like the first time something just awful happens to you either. Those are moments you aren't likely to forget.
So by way of introducing myself to you, let me share with you a list of my firsts:
My first love was a boy named Matthew in my pre-school class. He was very funny looking with a huge head of unruly curls, crooked teeth and rather prominent nostrils, but I loved him nonetheless. My best friend married us underneath a tree in the play yard and we used rubber bands as our wedding rings. Years later, when I arrived at college 3,000 ...
... Full Biography
Link to Dana Reinhardt's Website
Name Pronunciation
Dana Reinhardt: day-na rine-hart (first syllable rhymes with mine)
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
