''The Librarianist'' is a 2023 novel by Canadian-born author

Patrick deWitt Patrick deWitt (born 1975) 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 Brot ...

. It was published on July 4, 2023, by

House of Anansi Press House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anans ...

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."

Reception

At the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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. In its

starred review A starred review is a book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece ...

, ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' deemed it "a quietly effective and moving character study." Sam Sacks of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' 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."

References

2023 American novels 2023 Canadian novels Novels by Patrick deWitt House of Anansi Press books Ecco Press books Novels set in Portland, Oregon Works about librarians {{2020s-novel-stub