The Librarianist

**AN INTERNATIONAL No. 1 BESTSELLER** 'I absolutely adored it' NINA STIBBE **Selected as a Washington Post Book of the Summer** From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes a novel about an ordinary man who thought lifes surprises were behind him until a chance encounter changed everything ________________________________________________ Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books 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 hes 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 Comets straight man facade is the story of an unhappy childs 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 librarians vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Comets experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsized 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 introverts condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity. ________________________________________________________________________ Praise for Patrick deWitt 'A triumph from a writer truly in the zone' Maria Semple, author of Whered You Go, Bernadette 'deWitt remains a true original' Guardian 'One of the most talented young writers around' Sunday Times