| The Librarianist | |
| Author: | Patrick deWitt |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | House of Anansi Press (Canada) Ecco Press (US) |
| Pub Date: | July 4, 2023 |
| Media Type: | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages: | 352 pages |
| Isbn: | 978-1-4870-0991-5 |
| Isbn Note: | (Canada) (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]
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]