But even as a kid, I knew there was a disconnect. “That idea of the future that was promoted by these world fairs really captured my imagination. “Growing up in Vancouver, Expo ‘86 was a big deal,” Mastai says between bites of a chocolate chip walnut cookie at Elysian on 5th Avenue. It’s like a teenager scoffing at the notion that his dad once used a pager. To him, our idea of technological innovation is shockingly archaic-even dystopian. In the book, a time-travel expedition goes awry, and Tom finds himself in our iteration of the present: the one where the iPhone is the holy grail and battery-powered cars are still considered an anomaly. Tom’s 2016 is the utopian manifestation that scientists and creatives in the 1950s thought we would have by now: flying cars, teleportation, and never-browning avocados.

It’s not the future-it’s the right now, but different. And gosh, what an entrance.Īll Our Wrong Todays (Penguin Random House) follows Tom, who lives in an alternate version of 2016. The Vancouver-born, Toronto-based screenwriter ( The F Word, The Samaritan) has been making movies for 15 years, but this is his first time tackling a book. The book he is referring to is his debut novel, All Our Wrong Todays. “When I have an idea, the consequence is that you close the book.” “Except there are no explosions,” Mastai says with a smile. It’s there, in the folds of your imagination, that he mixes potions and watches things change colour or bubble over. He’s got the hair for it, certainly, and a nice pair of thick-rimmed glasses-but instead of a laboratory, Mastai’s experiments happen in your brain. The more Elan Mastai talks, the more it becomes evident that he is something of a mad scientist.

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai