The Librarianist

Patrick deWitt

The triumphant new black comic adventure from the author of the Man Booker Prize-shortlistedTheSistersBrothers

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 centre that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, Bob begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed. Behind Bob Comet’s straight man facade is the story of an unhappy child’s 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 librarian’s vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses.

Patrick deWitt is the author of TheSistersBrothers,which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize, and was adapted for a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix and Riz Ahmed. He also is the author of FrenchExit,which was adapted for a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

06 July 2023

HARDBACK / 9781526646897 / £18.99

EXPORT TPB / 9781526646934 / £14.99

EBOOK / 9781526646910 / £13.29

TERRITORY: Commonwealth (excluding Canada)/UK/Open Market

TRANSLATION RIGHTS:

ANZ Pub Date 04 July 2023

TRADE PAPERBACK / AUS $32.99 / NZ $36.99

The

bold new

novel from the Women's Prize Longlisted author

Emily Perkins

A hypnotic portrait of women unravelling and being unravelled from the Women's Prize longlisted, award-winning author of The Forrests

From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.

In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release. All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?

Emily Perkins is the author of four novels, including The Forrests (longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction). Her work for stage and screen includes co­writing the film adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s novel The Rehearsal (dir. Alison Maclean), an adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, and the original play The Made, produced in 2022. She lives in New Zealand.