Kenneth Oppel: When Art Becomes Reality
When I started writing Best of All Worlds it felt like a cautionary tale or speculative fiction, now it feels more like headlines.
Imagine: you wake up in a dome to discover your only neighbour is a conspiracy theorist, science denier, master of misinformation who’s mangled the concept of freedom to justify naked self-interest and trample on the rights of others.
One scarcely needs to imagine it. Especially if you’re Canadian like me and share a border with a country that’s sliding quickly into authoritarianism.
In Best of All Worlds, Xavier Oak has been trapped inside a dome for three years. He’s with his father and newish stepmother and his 3-year-old half brother who was born just days after they woke up inside the dome. All their attempts to escape fail. They farm; they accept — or try to. The arrival of the Jackson family is welcome, but the Jacksons have very different values, and very different ideas about where they are and who is holding them captive. And they are hellbent on escape – even as it becomes increasingly clear that escape is the worst possible thing that could happen.
Earlier this year I was at the American Booksellers Association in Denver, and an American bookseller was mildly vexed that the “good guys” in my book were from Montreal and the “bad guys” were from Tennessee. Not everyone from the southern states, she said, was like that. I agreed completely. But I also mentioned that, when I was researching my book, I found a map of the United States (by the Southern Poverty Law Centre) that itemized the number of hate groups per capita: Tennessee scored very high. My characters had to come from somewhere.
Another disquieting bit of research I did revealed that about 17% of Americans believe in the QAnon conspiracy (please do look it up!) which translates to 44.5 million people of voting age – more than the entire population of my country.
If so, many adults are victims of misinformation and conspiracy theories. What must it be like for young people, trying to navigate this world?
My hope for this book is that, after reading it, people will talk about it, maybe argue about it – the ending in particular. True or fake? Happy or sad? Just or heartless? (I know the answer, but then again, I wrote the book.) I see Best of All Worlds as an invitation for the reader to wonder not just “What would I do?” but also “What might work better?” Because if escape isn’t an option, we really do have to make it work, all of us together.
I also hope Best of All Worlds might encourage people to be more careful about what they accept as fact: Look things up from reputable sources, as many as possible; trust experts, not quislings of corporations or malign politicians.
Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of many books, including Airborn, which won the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature and a Michael L Printz Honor Book Award, and the Silverwing trilogy, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. Some of his other books include Ghostlight, The Boundless, Every Hidden Thing, and Inkling. The Nest and Half Brother both won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award. Kenneth lives in Toronto with his family.
X: @kennethoppel | Instagram: Kenneth.oppel
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel | Hardback | Publishing 5 June 2025
