The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.

Behind Bob Comet's straight-man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.

With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition.The Librarianistcelebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity. (From House of Anansi Press)

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Patrick deWittis a novelist from Portland, Ore., by way of Vancouver Island. He has written severalnovels, includingThe Sisters Brothers,which won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction, the Leacock Medal for Humour, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the ScotiabankGiller Prize. His other books includeUndermajordomo MinorandFrench Exit.French Exitwas onthe shortlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Interviews with Patrick deWitt

The Next Chapter17:52Patrick deWitt on The Librarianist

Ryan B. Patrick interviews Patrick deWitt about his new novel, The Librarianist.

'The back stories get me every time:' Patrick deWitt on writing difficult characters

6 years ago

Duration 1:07

The writer discusses his attempts to explore common ground with unpleasant characters.

The Next Chapter1:40DOG EARED: Patrick deWitt on Jane Bowles' Two Serious Ladies

Patrick deWitt reveals what keeps him coming back to the novel, Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles.

Other books by Patrick deWitt