And then, there's the fantasy pointed at the other direction that says, if I can just make it to the West, everything will be OK. There's one pointed toward the part of the world I was raised in, which says the people coming over here are barbarians at the gate, we need to do anything we can to stop them. The book takes place at the collision of two duelling fantasies. The paradise in What Strange Paradiseis a delusion of safety, a delusion of home, a delusion of what it means to have arrived. What is the paradise of What Strange Paradise? Tareq Hadhad is championing What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad.

I just hope he enjoys the experience because it's really unlike anything else. And if it doesn't, it will be entirely the fault of my own book. If the book does well on the other end of Canada Reads, it will be entirely his doing.

He's had a series of experiences that would be enough to break most people, and it was just a pleasure to talk to him. This person has taken time out of his life to enter into a very public setting to talk about my book. It's difficult to say how grateful I am to him for taking this on, for choosing my book.Īnd, he's had this incredible life. How was meeting your champion, Tareq Hadhad? For all of my insecurities about having celebrities talk about my book in public, I'm a huge fan of the whole endeavour. This whole thing is so unique and it's just an incredible privilege. I talk a lot about this notion of how anxious this makes me, but that's just because I'm a naturally anxious person. The fact that people are passionate about this is really heartening.Īnd, the fact that our public broadcaster dedicates a week of programming to have people talk about books - that's such a miraculous and rare thing. This thing gets pretty intense sometimes, but the fact that people are passionate enough to get intense about books offsets any of the mentions that show up in my Twitter notifications. Is there anything you'd like to say to Twitter this year, something to keep in mind as they watch the show?įeel free to yell at me as much as you like.

I'm deeply grateful to be in this kind of company and deeply anxious about how this thing's going to play out.

It's kind of a mechanism of attention and spotlight that I'm not used to at all. My very limited experience with Canada Reads for my one previous rodeo is that you're subjected to this kind of very communal form of feedback that exists not only in the panellists's conversations, but also the folks that pop up on Twitter and take this very seriously. I'm equal parts deeply grateful and deeply anxious. How are you feeling about being on Canada Reads again?

El akkad omar