Tomorrow - Graham Swift

You're asleep, my angels, I assume. So, to my amazement and relief, is your father, like a man finding it in him ot sleep on the eve of his execution. He'll need all he can muster tomorrow. I'm the only one awake in this house on this night before the day that will change all our lives. Though it's already that day: the little luminous hands on my alarm clock (which I haven't set) show just gone one in the morning. And the nights are short. It's almost midsummer 1995. It's a week past your sixteenth birthday.

What a disappointing read from an author who has won many literary awards! This book all takes place during one woman's sleepless night in bed. She is worried about a discussion with her 16 year-old twin the next morning. The entire book is a first person imaginary dialogue with the children. While that premise might work as she looks back at life, it doesn't work in this book. The reader is kept waiting until halfway through the book to discover the big secret. Getting there is tedious reading and it gets worse after the secret is disclosed. The woman is an unlikable mother with little compassion or understanding. Her first person dialogue is completely unbelievable when it covers frequent and in-details of her sex life both within and outsider her marriage to their father. Can anyone imagine telling their teenage son and daughter, whom she describes as virgins, about her experiences in different sexual positions, the volume and type of her screaming orgasms, or how fluids seep out.

And it isn't just unrealistic sexual discussions, there are boring pages about a cat and a one-night affair. I was actually shocked by the woman's (or the author's?) comments about a non-genetic father's ability to be a father. Cold and Callous? Yes. Worth reading? Definitely not!