Can a book be written without an antagonist?

Question

I have had this thought running through my head and wondered what your thoughts were on it. Can a book, a story I should say, be written without an antagonist or antagonistic theme? I have an idea to write a story which takes place in the Judeo-Christian heaven which would not contain, necessarily, any antagonists.

Answer 1

I think that some authors have managed to work without antagonists, or at least to soft-pedal them. I have a couple of examples:

David Levithan, in his Every Day series, has a protagonist called A, and the series tends to focus on A and a friend named Rhiannon. A runs into antagonists periodically, but that is situational and doesn't happen in every situation A encounters.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, in Good Omens, have created a setting where an angel and a demon need to work together to stop a coming (and unintended) apocalypse. In this case, partly set in or near Christian heaven, you would expect the two characters to be at each others' throats - but common need has changed that narrative.

The story is yours. Don't let the way things have been done in the past, or the way they are done now, make you change your art.