One of Wall Street Journal’s Best of 2017
“Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor.”—Entertainment Weekly
“[An] amazing debut novel. . . . Dazzling and complex. . . . Fearlessly funny storytelling.”—The Washington Post
“Instantly engaging. . . . A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers, and others, that show us who we might be, could be—and maybe never should be—that eventually leads us to who we are.”—USA Today
Elan Mastai's acclaimed debut novel is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms.
It's 2016, and in Tom Barren's world, technology has solved all of humanity's problems—there's no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocadoes. Unfortunately, Tom isn't happy. He's lost the girl of his dreams. And what do you do when you're heartbroken and have a time machine? Something stupid.
Finding himself stranded in a terrible alternate reality—which we immediately recognize as our 2016—Tom is desperate to fix his mistake and go home. Right up until the moment he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and the woman who may just be the love of his life.
Now Tom faces an impossible choice. Go back to his perfect but loveless life. Or stay in our messy reality with a soulmate by his side. His search for the answer takes him across continents and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.
Filled with humor and heart and packed with insight, intelligence, and mind-bending invention, All Our Wrong Todays is a powerful and moving story of life, loss, and love.
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“While not a professional narrator, Elan Mastai is the perfect choice to narrate his own book about an imperfect, hapless man whose actions change the very fabric of the universe. Mastai counters the drama of the tale with a wry, humorous reading…Mastai knows where to place humorous beats and when to emphasize events and play down others…[For the] epic, chapter-long, profanity-laced meltdown…Mastai performs this with bravado and tremendous humor. This is time-travel for non-science fiction fans—and an audiobook to be enjoyed by everyone.”
— AudioFile
Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor.
— Entertainment Weekly[An] amazing debut novel....Dazzling and complex....Fearlessly funny storytelling....In the alternative reality of our own day when many long for the chance to turn back time, some solace might be found in the masochistic pleasures of this trippy and ultimately touching novel.
— The Washington PostInstantly engaging....A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers, and others, that show us who we might be, could be—and maybe never should be—that eventually leads us to who we are.
— USA TodayMastai’s model, openly acknowledged, is Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, with its short chapters and snappy punchlines. He has caught the tone very well: a narrative voice at once wise and naïve, indignant and resigned, flip and deeply sad.
— The Wall Street JournalAll Our Wrong Todays is an incredibly creative work. It’s as if Mastai time traveled and took copious notes of what a future utopian world would be. The science is as engaging as the romance. Mastai has mastered the art of endearing himself to an audience through both knowledge and entertainment. It’s definitely out of this world—or an alternate universe.
— Associated PressImagine a world with flying cars, no aging, and casual trips to the moon. This one’s about a guy who lives in that world, but accidentally shifts into the reality we all know...and it might be better for him....We’re hooked. Think: Outlander meets Back to the Future.
— The SkimmAn entertaining romp.
— The GuardianShades of sci-fi, but also an endearing comedy about family and friendship.
— New York Post[All Our Wrong Todays] earns the case it makes for the messiness, heartbreak, and imperfections of our world, and in doing so helped reconnect me to my fellow humans, whom, at the moment, I find inscrutable and frightening in equal measure.
— Ron Currie, Chicago TribuneA multiverse trans-timeline love story....All storytelling is time travel, but not all time-travel stories are worth telling, and though I don’t have the word count to properly place All Our Wrong Todays in the pantheon of chrono adventures (somewhere between Voyagers and Ken Grimwood’s Replay), it more than deserves to be on readers’ shelves in any timeline.
— The Dallas Morning NewsAll Our Wrongs Today belongs in a burgeoning genre of books like Andy Weir’s The Martian that wrap self-deprecating dad humor around unabashedly nerdy science....Refreshing.
— GQYou don’t have to be a sci-fi fan to become totally enthralled with this fresh, time-travel novel by screenwriter Mastai....An utterly clever, entertaining love story.
— RealSimple“On top of this brilliant philosophical premise of parallel versions of one’s life and the people in it—of what might have been had history unfolded different—Mastai’s language is also rife with an infectious humor you won’t be able to stop reading.
— Harper’s BazaarAll Our Wrong Todays is the mind-bending science fiction romance you need to read.
— MashableWitty, thoughtful, and entertaining.
— Houston ChronicleBrilliant....All Our Wrong Todays is a stunning work that adeptly broadens the sci-fi genre by giving these faces true believability.
— Electric ReviewThere is a love story at the core of this novel, and it impacts Tom's decisions about which world he wants to inhabit.
— Popular Mechanics, Best of the YearThis is a science fiction love story that is by turns funny and wistful and smart, while remaining fully invested in how being human feels. Mastai has a sure hand with all of the elements of storytelling....Mastai’s jaunty prose is essential to the vibrant and engaging story.
— Locus MagazineA novel filled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight, intelligence, and mind-bending invention.
— BookBrowseFascinating, intelligent, and written with a solid understanding of human nature, Mastai, an experienced screenwriter, shows a flair for novel writing. Working within the intellectual tropes of time travel, he tells the story about a damaged human being searching for love and acceptance, while trying to undo damages to the space-time continuum that he caused himself....Highly recommended.
— The MissourianMastai creates a fascinating tapestry of interconnected alternate realities....A potent mixture of sincere introspection and a riveting examination of time travel and alternate realities, this highly recommended novel is reminiscent of Jo Walton’s My Real Children with the breeziness of Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
— Library Journal (starred review)With humor, grace, and dizzying skill, Mastai crafts a time-traveling novel that challenges every convention of the trope, and succeeds brilliantly. His droll, unassuming writing style couches a number of razor-sharp critiques about both our own reality and that of his hero, while the endless array of technological gadgets, innovations, and possibilities give the story its drive and irresistible exuberance....Heartrending, funny, smart, and stunningly, almost brazenly hopeful.
— RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)Mastai’s novel is both charming and wondrously plotted....‘Existence is not a thing with which to muck around,’ and yet that’s exactly what fantastic storytelling attempts, warping reality, perception, and truth—and hopefully entertaining us as well as this novel does.
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Mastai’s utopian worldbuilding is complex and imaginative....An entertaining rom-com of errors, All Our Wrong Todays backflips through paradoxes while exploring provocative questions of grief and the multitudes we contain within ourselves. Ultimately, it’s a story about love—and the stupid things we’ll do for it.
— BookPageA novel about time travel has no right to be this engaging. A novel this engaging has no right to be this smart. And a novel this smart has no right to be this funny. Or insightful. Or immersive. Basically, this novel has no right to exist.
— Jonathan Tropper, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where I Leave You and One Last Thing Before I GoElan Mastai has conjured up a witty and freewheeling time-traveling romance that packs an emotional wallop. All Our Wrong Todays is a page-turning delight.
— Maria Semple, author of Today Will Be Different and Where’d You Go, BernadetteA thrilling tale of time travel and alternate timelines with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity's future.
— Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The MartianTime travel bends our minds, and in the right hands it can tickle our funny bones. All Our Wrong Todays is a twisty, provocative, creative tale of one person at the center of multiple branching timelines. It's an extremely enjoyable way to get yourself thinking about our world and the ways it could be very different.
— Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe ItselfAs a novelist, I hate Elan Mastai for writing a perfect book. As a reader, I couldn't be more grateful.
— Ron Currie, author of Everything Matters! and The One-Eyed ManScreenwriter Mastai fills his debut with vintage-sf-novel-fueled names and explanations to anticipate readers’ every question; they’ll enjoy the ride.
— BooklistWithin the pages of this brilliant novel is enough humor, wisdom, and joy to last us well into the next millennium. Elan Mastai is this generation's Vonnegut, providing us with the blueprints for building a more loving present, past, and future.
— Alexander Weinstein, author of Children of the New WorldA clever concept that Mastai executes to perfection. An absolute joy to read.
— New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab[An] imaginative debut novel....Mastai has fun with all the usual conventions of time travel and its many paradoxes, and the cherry on top is his dialogue, reminiscent of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
— Publishers WeeklyAn intricate plot, cheeky humor, and rich, multifaceted characters create a compelling and complex narrative. An additional meta-layer explores the role of writing in a world obsessed with technology. Sophisticated readers will enjoy revisiting arguments about the death of the novel; deciding whether Tom is right in asserting this is memoir and not fiction; and whether there is a meaningful difference between the two.
— VOYAElan Mastai’s debut is full of laughs, adventure, and heart.
— BookishFilled with humor and heart, and saturated with insight and intelligence and a mind-bending talent for invention, this novel signals the arrival of a major talent.
— Tor.comA really fantastic adventure....I wish I could jump back in time so I could read it again for the first time.
— Geek Dad“A witty and freewheeling time-traveling romance that packs an emotional wallop.”
— Maria Semple, New York Times bestselling author“A thrilling tale of time travel and alternate timelines with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity’s future.”
— Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author“Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor.”
— Entertainment Weekly“A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers and others, that show us who we might be, could be—and maybe never should be—that eventually leads us to who we are.”
— USA Today“Fearlessly funny storytelling…[a] trippy and ultimately touching novel.” “
— Washington Post“A narrative voice at once wise and naïve, indignant and resigned, flip and deeply sad.”
— Wall Street Journal“On top of this brilliant philosophical premise of parallel versions of one’s life and the people in it…Mastai’s language is also rife with an infectious humor.”
— Harper’s Bazaar“With humor, grace and dizzying skill, Mastai crafts a time-traveling novel that challenges every convention of the trope, and succeeds brilliantly. His droll, unassuming writing style couches a number of razor-sharp critiques about both our own reality and that of his hero, while the endless array of technological gadgets, innovations and possibilities give the story its drive and irresistible exuberance…A book that is heartrending, funny, smart, and stunningly, almost brazenly hopeful.”
— RT Book Reviews (4½ stars, Top Pick)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Elan Mastai is an award-winning screenwriter and author of All Our Wrong Todays.