The Librarianist

The Librarianist

First edition cover (US)
Author	Patrick deWitt
Language	English
Publisher	House of Anansi Press (Canada) Ecco Press (US)
Publication date	July 4, 2023
Media type	Print, e-book, audiobook
Pages	352 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]

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.