The Librarianist

Last updated
The Librarianist
The Librarianist Patrick deWitt book cover.png
First edition cover (US)
Author Patrick deWitt
LanguageEnglish
Publisher House of Anansi Press
(Canada)
Ecco Press
(US)
Publication date
July 4, 2023
Media typePrint, e-book, audiobook
Pages352 pages
ISBN 978-1-4870-0991-5 (Canada)
978-0-06-308512-1
(US)

The Librarianist is a 2023 novel by Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt. It was published on July 4, 2023, by House of Anansi Press [1] and Ecco Press. It follows a retired librarian named Bob Comet and is billed as a "wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition." [2]

Reception

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative "Positive" rating based on 18 reviews, with only five "mixed" reviews. [3]

Kirkus Reviews , in a starred review, deemed it "a quietly effective and moving character study." [4]

Sam Sacks of The Wall Street Journal called it "Mr. deWitt's smoothest book by far, one more prone than usual to clichés [...] but also more warmhearted. It shares the attributes of its hero: likable, unshowy, somewhat dull but reliably soothing." [5]

It was the winner of the 2024 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. [6]

Related Research Articles

The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual Canadian literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self-published in the previous year. The silver medal, designed by sculptor Emanuel Hahn, is a tribute to well-known Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) and is accompanied by a cash prize of $25,000 (CAD). It is presented in the late spring or early summer each year, during a banquet ceremony in or near Leacock’s hometown of Orillia, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taiye Selasi</span> American writer and photographer (born 1979)

Taiye Selasi is an American writer and photographer. Of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin, she describes herself as a "local" of Accra, Berlin, New York and Rome. In 2005, Selasi published "Bye-Bye, Babar ", her seminal text on Afropolitans. Her novel, Ghana Must Go, was published by Penguin in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick deWitt</span> Canadian novelist and screenwriter

Patrick deWitt is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. Born on Vancouver Island, deWitt lives in Portland, Oregon and has acquired American citizenship. As of 2023, he has written five novels: Ablutions (2009), The Sisters Brothers (2011), Undermajordomo Minor (2015), French Exit (2018) and The Librarianist (2023).

<i>The Sisters Brothers</i> 2011 novel by Patrick deWitt

The Sisters Brothers is a 2011 Western novel by Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt. The darkly comic story takes place in Oregon and California in 1851. The narrator, Eli Sisters, and his brother Charlie are assassins tasked with killing Hermann Kermit Warm, an ingenious prospector who has been accused of stealing from the Sisters' fearsome boss, the Commodore. Eli and Charlie experience a series of misadventures while tracking down Warm which resemble the narrative form of a picaresque novel, and the chapters are, according to one review, "slightly sketched-in, dangerously close to a film treatment."

<i>The Book of Jonas</i> 2012 novel

The Book of Jonas is a 2012 debut literary novel by American writer Stephen Dau. The book was published in English on March 15, 2012 by Blue Rider Press, and in French as Le Livre de Jonas by Éditions Gallimard. The book takes its name from the Book of Jonah of the Hebrew Bible and features themes of war and its effect on others.

<i>French Exit</i> (novel) 2018 novel by Patrick deWitt

French Exit is a 2018 novel by Canadian author Patrick deWitt. The novel was published by House of Anansi Press and received wide critical acclaim upon its publication, making the shortlist for the 2018 Giller Prize.

<i>Frankissstein</i> 2019 novel by Jeanette Winterson

Frankissstein: A Love Story is a 2019 novel by Jeanette Winterson. It was published on 28 May 2019 by Jonathan Cape. The novel employs speculative fiction and historical fiction to reimagine Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein (1818). The story switches between Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein in Geneva, Switzerland in 1816 and the story of Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor and Victor Stein, a transhumanist, who become involved in the world of artificial intelligence and cryonics in present-day Brexit-era Britain.

<i>Undermajordomo Minor</i> 2015 novel by Patrick deWitt

Undermajordomo Minor is a 2015 novel by Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt. It is his third novel and was published by House of Anansi Press on September 5, 2015. The novel is a gothic fable set in an unspecified time and location that has been compared to 19th-century Central and Eastern Europe.

<i>The Making of Incarnation</i> 2021 novel by Tom McCarthy

The Making of Incarnation is a 2021 novel by English writer Tom McCarthy.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2022.

<i>Harrow</i> (novel) 2021 novel by Joy Williams

Harrow is a science-fiction fantasy novel by Joy Williams, published September 14, 2021 by Knopf Publishing Group.

<i>Unsettled Ground</i> 2021 novel by Claire Fuller

Unsettled Ground is a novel by Claire Fuller, published May 18, 2021 by Tin House Books.

<i>The Rabbit Hutch</i> 2022 novel by Tess Gunty

The Rabbit Hutch is a 2022 debut novel by writer Tess Gunty and winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. Gunty won the inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize for the novel.

<i>The English Understand Wool</i> 2022 novella by Helen DeWitt

The English Understand Wool is a 2022 novella by American author Helen DeWitt. The novella was published by New Directions.

<i>My Nemesis</i> (novel) 2023 novel by Charmaine Craig

My Nemesis is a 2023 novel by American writer Charmaine Craig.

<i>Biography of X</i> 2023 novel by Catherine Lacey

Biography of X is a 2023 alternative history novel by American writer Catherine Lacey published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Perestroika in Paris is a 2020 fiction novel written by Jane Smiley.

<i>Chain-Gang All-Stars</i> 2023 novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Chain-Gang All-Stars is a 2023 novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, as well as other awards.

<i>North Woods</i> (novel) 2023 novel by Daniel Mason

North Woods is a 2023 novel by American novelist Daniel Mason. The novel, Mason's sixth, is a work of historical fiction that tells the story of a single house in New England over the course of several centuries.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2024.

References

  1. "The Librarianist". House of Anansi Press . Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  2. "The Librarianist". HarperCollins . Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  3. "Book Marks reviews of The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt". Book Marks . Literary Hub . Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  4. "THE LIBRARIANIST". Kirkus Reviews . April 10, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  5. Sacks, Sam (June 30, 2023). "Fiction: 'The Librarianist' by Patrick deWitt" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on July 1, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  6. Cassandra Drudi, "Patrick deWitt wins 2024 Leacock Medal". Quill & Quire , June 24, 2024.