'Disaster can actually herald change': Heather O'Neill discusses The Future's message of hope
CBC Books | Posted: March 7, 2024 11:11 PM | Last Updated: March 8
On the final day of the Canada Reads 2024, Heather O'Neill explained how The Future can carry us forward
With the theme of "one book to carry us forward," the final day of the Canada Reads 2024 debates explored themes of hope in the two remaining titles.
Amid arguments about The Future's challenging prose and world-building, author Heather O'Neill, The Future's champion, was quick to point out that the novel speaks of hope in a world that's falling apart.
The Future is set in an alternate history of Detroit where the French never surrendered the city to the U.S. Its residents deal with poverty, pollution and a legacy of racism. When Gloria, a woman looking for answers about her missing granddaughters, arrives in the city, she finds a kingdom of orphaned and abandoned children who have created their own society — presenting a model of hope for what happens after disaster.
While there's interest in the logistical details of day to day life in the world imagined in The Future, O'Neill maintained that the circumstances of disaster are not the main point.
"What we want to know is what happens after, like how are we going to rebuild or how are they dealing with this catastrophe?," she said.
O'Neill also highlights how Leroux reinvents the dystopian genre.
"She reverses the dystopian genre and makes it into the idea that disaster can actually herald change and that we're living in a time of great catastrophe, all of us, all over the world."
She reverses the dystopian genre and makes it into the idea that disaster can actually herald change. - Heather O'Neill
"It's hard to watch the news, but there is a way for us to come together as a community and come out of that. And I feel that idea of hope. I had never really thought about it before and I felt like a different person.
"I thought about hope in a different way."
The 2024 Canada Reads contenders are:
- Athlete and CBC Sports contributor Dallas Soonias champions Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
- Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi champions Denison Avenue by Christina Wong & Daniel Innes
- Fashion influencer Mirian Njoh champions Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
- Actor Kudakwashe Rutendo champions Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji
- Author Heather O'Neill champions The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou
Catch up on the 2024 Canada Reads debates
If you missed out on the debates, here's where you can check them out and see who won!