A New York Times bestselling author’s gripping account of a Chicago community coming together to save a group of teenagers from gun violence. In the tradition of works like Random Family and Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Sudhir Venkatesh’s The Tomorrow Game is a deeply reported chronicle of families surviving in a Southside Chicago community. At the heart of the story are two teenagers: Marshall Mariot, an introverted video gamer and bike rider, and Frankie Paul, who leaves foster care to direct his cousin’s drug business while he’s in prison. Frankie devises a plan to attack Marshall and his friends—it is his best chance to showcase his toughness and win respect for his crew. Catching wind of the plan, Marshall and his friends decide they must preemptively go after Frankie’s crew to defend their honor. The pressure mounts as both groups of teens race to find a gun and strike first. All the while, the community at large—a cast that includes the teens’ families, black market gun dealers, local pastors, a bodega owner, and a veteran beat cop—try their best to defuse the conflict and keep the kids alive. Based on Venkatesh’s three decades of immersion in Chicago’s Southside, and as propulsive as a novel, The Tomorrow Game is a nuanced, timely look at the toll that poverty and gun violence take on families and their communities.

Timothy Koops is an ordinary man with a dead-end job whose homelife is a struggle. He takes part in an experimental procedure to enhance his memories, making them more positive and making him more successful in life. As Timothy discovers, the procedure also alters the past, subtly at first, then with greater impact. The changes begin to affect not only Timothy, but also the world around him. Enjoying unimagined wealth and power, Timothy embraces his glamourous new life. But the project's lead scientist, Dr. Zakery Fasten, is concerned about unexpected consequences. Dr. Fasten comes into conflict with the mysterious Control, who oversees the project in collaboration with a supercomputer that has ideas of its own. As the changes become even greater, Timothy understands the ramifications of playing the Tomorrow Game. Will he become the master of his new reality or be forever lost in time?

Bell and Roe live isolated lives in a postapocalyptic wasteland, Bell with her books and Roe with her guns. When they happen to meet, Bell shows Roe a game: take o your gas mask and see if you can breathe. Taste this plant and see if you survive. Do more than just not-die. When Bell brings vegetables from her garden to trade, she is trapped in Roe's shelter by a sudden acid rainstorm. A tenuous friendship develops, nurtured by Bell's endless stash of fairy tales. Then Bell steals one of Roe's guns. She says she needs it to hunt, but what else might she have planned? Roe's shelter is stocked with canned goods and other priceless resources. Is their friendship true, or just another game?