In a techno-utopian alternate 2016, a down-on-his-luck young man travels back to 1965 and accidentally botches the moment of discovery that made the idyllic future possible.
...[a] dazzling and complex novel ... Given the chance to go back in time to the same spot, Barren causes yet another disruption, unleashing a much darker world, and the ingenuous plot circles and loops across these versions of reality. It is a tale told by an idiot, of sorts. Affable and witty, Barren has just enough scientific knowledge to be charmingly dangerous ... reminiscent of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds. Mastai has that same penchant for exuberant plot, a quick dash of character and 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.
...that’s the beauty of All Our Wrong Todays. It’s 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. Only in Tom’s world, he has an opportunity nobody in our world is ever offered. He gets to choose. He gets to decide which version of himself, his family, his friends, his time and reality he prefers — a decision that not only impacts his life but the lives of billions of others born and unborn.
It's this kind of informal, self-referential writing that permeates the pages of All Our Wrong Todays, where our narrator constantly butts up against the line separating charming from annoying ... though Tom is sure he's a time traveler, Mastai does a wonderful job of playing with the idea that Tom's previous life was all just a dream or possibly a psychotic break ... All Our Wrong Todays isn't just a story about some schmuck screwing up the future. It's a study in mental health and a discourse on obsession and family dynamics. It's even a multiverse trans-timeline love story. And it's fun ... There are few surprises in Mastai's story, but it's not without tension, and readers shouldn't be scared of the science behind Tom's travels — Mastai does a wonderful job of keeping it simple.
