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From award-winning author Kenneth Oppel a startling, can't-wait-to-talk-about-it-with-someone novel that defies genre to create a survival thriller unlike any you've read before. For fans of Leave the World Behind, A.S. King, M.T. Anderson, and Margaret Atwood.
Xavier Oaks doesn't particularly want to go to the cabin with his dad and his dad's pregnant new wife, Nia. But family obligations are family obligations, and it's only for a short time. So he leaves his mom, his brother, and his other friends behind for a week in the woods. Only... one morning he wakes up and the house isn't where it was before. It's like it's been lifted and placed... somewhere else.
When Xavier, his dad, and Nia go explore, they find they are inside a dome, trapped. And there's no one else around...
Until, three years later, another family arrives.
Is there any escape? Is there a reason they are stuck where they are? Different people have different answers — and those different answers inexorably lead to tension, strife, and sacrifice.
In this masterpiece, award-winning author Kenneth Oppel builds to a heart-stopping pitch in drawing a story that feels very much of our moment, where our very human choices collectively lead to humanity's eventual fate.
"Oppel centers a persistent and intelligent protagonist in this unassuming but riveting novel. Compact yet brimming with tense atmosphere, it's a sharp examination of society and isolation presented as a thriller set in a deceptively bucolic landscape." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Stereotypes on both sides of the political aisle are deftly explored through these characters, but above all, this is the definition of a page-turner. A thought-provoking, uncomfortable thriller that readers won't be able to forget. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Although Riley's portrayal feels somewhat lacking in nuance, the choice Xavier ultimately must make is understandably agonizing—and, in the end, justified. An idyllic scenario turns increasingly creepy in this slightly message-heavy story." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about Best of All Worlds was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of Skybreaker and Airborn, a Printz Honor Book. He lives in Toronto with his family and can be found online at www.kennethoppel.ca.
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