Elan Mastai's novel All Our Wrong Todays is on the Canada Reads 2019 longlist. The final five books and the panellists defending them will be revealed on Jan. 31, 2019.

The 2019 debates are happening on March 25-28, 2019 and will be hosted by Ali Hassan.

Elan Mastai is a novelist and screenwriter. Born and raised in Vancouver, he now lives in Toronto. He is best known for writing the film The F Word, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award for best adapted screenplay and the Writers Guild of Canada Award.

His debut novel, All the Wrong Todays, was published in 2017 and is on the Canada Reads 2019 longlist.

"I lost my mother at a relatively early age. I was in my mid-20s and she passed away from cancer. Like my protagonist [from All Our Wrong Todays], I was at a time in my life where I hadn't really figured out what I was going to do with my life. I knew I wanted to be a writer, but going from wanting to be a writer to actually being a professional writer seemed like such a huge leap.

"In some ways, I think if there's one kind of last gift my mom gave to me, it was just a sense of what really matters — the people that you love, your family and your dreams."