New Releases by Patrick DeWitt

From bestselling author Patrick deWitt comes Dodge City, a rollicking novel about a young man on an amphetamine-fueled cross-country road trip, fleeing the draft for the safe haven of Canada. LONGLISTED FOR THE GILLER PRIZE It’s 1967 in Los Angeles and Lee Clarke has received his draft notice, calling him up to fight in the Vietnam War. A straitlaced, apolitical twenty-three-year-old from Concrete, Washington, Lee is studying at UCLA until a fistfight leads to his expulsion—and his removal from the deferment list. The draft notice forces him to make the first political decision of his life, and though he’s happy in California and loves his girlfriend, he will leave the country and head for the border. He signs up at a drive-away car-delivery service, chancing into a showroom-new Jaguar bound for the East Coast. Bringing only a single suitcase and a bag of amphetamines, he makes his stimulated progress against the width of the country, pining for the life he’s left behind and wondering what his decision will mean for his future. But he is not just saying goodbye to the country of his birth. In four different towns strung out along the northern United States, Lee visits each member of his immediate family: his father, a World War II veteran in a state of degradation; his mother, engaged in a buoyantly manic and never-ending performance with her shut-in sibling; his heartbroken, misanthropic brother, Harry; and finally his twin sister, Grace, a brash, young nurse-in-training mired in romantic drama at a Manhattan psychiatric hospital. An arresting portrait of a country in flux and a family in disarray, Dodge City represents a signal achievement in an already illustrious body of work by the “twenty-first-century Mark Twain” (Slate). Witty, moving, and delightfully off-kilter, Patrick deWitt’s sixth novel is a brilliant and raucous exploration of family, country, division, and war, from an elegant humorist who never shies from the stranger aspects of human behavior.

他的一生，拘謹而呆板，最終，卻將晚年活成了童年。 平淡雋永，後座力驚人。 暢銷作家派崔克?德威特寫下鮑勃?科梅特的故事── 這個終身活在文學之中，為文學而活的男人，卻沒發現自己的人生，就是一部深情動人的著作。 ▍2024年加拿大史蒂芬．李科克紀念幽默獎。 ▍曼布克獎決選《淘金殺手》作者派崔克．德威特，暖心之作。 「在人生晚年，有沒有可能改變性格？也許改變微乎其微，但也許已然足夠。」──專欄作家 蘿拉?米勒（Laura Miller） 鮑勃是個退休的圖書館員，住在奧勒岡州波特蘭市一棟薄荷綠的小屋，與書本和小確幸作伴，過著孤獨的生活。某天早上他照例外出散步，在便利商店遇見一位迷路的失智老婦，並帶她回到她居住的長青中心。為了填補退休後的空虛，他開始到中心當志工。中心裡有各種怪咖，圍繞在鮑勃身邊，又在偶然的情況下，鮑勃與過去一段痛苦的情愛糾葛擦撞，他的人生和深沉的性格就此揭露。 總是作為配角的鮑勃，背後藏著一個不快樂的男孩，在二次大戰最後幾天逃家冒險；曾經得到真愛，又被橫刀奪愛；在圖書館員的職業當中發現意義並感到自豪；還有，離群索居的快樂。鮑勃的人生看似感傷，但也是齣明亮雋永的喜劇；他有個本領，能夠發現古怪莫名的人物，並邀請他們登上他的人生舞臺。 憑著獨一無二的熱情、捉摸不定的幽默，以及對邊緣人的憐憫，派崔克?德威特野心滿滿，從各個角度書寫內向者的生活。《心碎圖書館員》歌頌平凡中的偉大，描繪寧靜的外表底下，美妙的波濤洶湧。

Bob Comet, un bibliotecar pensionar, duce o viață liniștită și retrasă într-o casă de culoarea mentei din Portland, înconjurat de cărți și plăceri mărunte. Totul se schimbă când, într-o dimineață, întâlnește o femeie în vârstă cu mințile rătăcite și o duce la centrul pentru seniori unde aceasta locuiește. Sperând să umple golul pe care îl resimte de când s-a pensionat, Bob începe să facă muncă de voluntariat la centru, unde se va împrieteni cu personaje excentrice și pitorești. Sub exteriorul său rezervat, Bob Comet ascunde amintiri puternice: povestea unui copil care fuge de acasă în ultimele zile ale celui de-Al Doilea Război Mondial, iubirea vieții sale pierdută în favoarea celui mai bun prieten, sensul și bucuria descoperite printre rafturile bibliotecii, într-o viață trăită discret, de pe margine. Experiențele lui Bob sunt înțesate de melancolie, dar totodată luminate de zâmbetul vieții sale petrecute în preajma cărților. Patrick deWitt spune cu umor și delicatețe povestea unui om aparent banal, dar plin de surprize – o celebrare emoționantă a celor care trăiesc tăcut, însă cu inima deschisă. „Portretul ficțional captivant al unui bibliotecar pensionar care face voluntariat la un centru pentru seniori ne dezvăluie viața personajului principal – trădările, pierderile, triumfurile – cu umor și tandrețe.” Vanity Fair „Marele dar al lui deWitt este capacitatea sa de a-l descrie pe Omul Obișnuit in extremis – eroismul tăcut care se ascunde chiar sub ochii noștri.” Telegraph (UK) „În Omul care iubea cărțile, deWitt creează un personaj încântător în persoana lui Bob Comet, care, la șaptezeci și doi de ani și după o viață fără așteptări prea mari, găsește răspunsuri la întrebările existențiale și prieteni adevărați. O lectură irezistibilă!” Booklist „Un roman discret, melancolic, perfect pentru serile lungi de vară.” Town & Country „Premisa ficțiunii lui deWitt este simplă: e nevoie de vreme îndelungată ca să treci peste unele episoade din viață. Exprimându-se adesea în aforisme tăioase, personajele lui retrăiesc în minte câte un incident definitoriu, a cărui poveste trebuie spusă și respusă până se întinde ca o pată, pătrunzând în toate aspectele propriilor vieți. [...] Într-o singură scenă, deWitt reușește să redea întregul parcurs al unei vieți solitare.” NICOLE FLATTERY, London Review of Books „Experiența lecturii a fost de-a dreptul fermecătoare, de la un capăt la altul. [...] Dialogul este proaspăt, iar personajele prind viață numaidecât. Cărțile lui deWitt au pur și simplu o energie care le face încântătoare.”Chicago Tribune „Povestea dulce-amară a unui bibliotecar pensionar. [...] Cartea ne prinde în mrejele sale treptat, pentru ca, în cele din urmă, să nu ne mai dea drumul.”Publishers Weekly ISBN ebook:9786303610740

L’esistenza di Bob Comet, bibliotecario in pensione, scorre come un lungo fiume tranquillo: non ha amici, il suo telefono non squilla mai e se qualcuno bussa alla sua porta, di sicuro è per vendergli qualcosa. Da tempo Bob ha rinunciato all’idea di conoscere il prossimo, o di lasciarsi conoscere, e il suo unico modo di stare nel mondo è tramite la lettura: qualcosa di vivo, in costante movimento e perenne crescita. In quasi tutte le stanze della sua casa ci sono scaffali zeppi di volumi, nei corridoi ordinate torri di libri, ovunque romanzi ammassati. L’altro piccolo piacere che Bob si concede è camminare. Le sue lunghe passeggiate cominciano senza una meta precisa e non prevedono contatti umani. Fino al giorno in cui, entrando in un 7-Eleven, si imbatte in una donna dall’aria assente, ferma davanti alle porte di vetro dei frigoriferi. La donna è vestita come una bambina, ma da sotto il berretto le spunta una zazzera bianca e scarmigliata. Al collo ha un foglietto legato a una cordicella, con la scritta: Mi chiamo chip, e vivo al centro anziani Gambellreed. Nel ricondurre la sperduta signora alla residenza per anziani, lo sguardo di Bob cade su un volantino in una bacheca: è un appello a fare volontariato presso quel centro. Un’occasione, per Bob, di sottrarsi all’ostinata solitudine di decenni. Ma anche, in modo del tutto inatteso, l’opportunità di riconciliarsi col suo passato e, forse, affrontare la feroce nostalgia per un amore perduto. Eccentrico e dolceamaro, tra imprevisti che sfiorano il comico, beffe del destino e un umorismo travolgente, L’uomo che amava i libri celebra ciò che vi è di straordinario nella cosiddetta vita ordinaria e descrive magnificamente la brace che cova anche sotto l’esistenza più mite. «Bob Comet ricorda Stoner di John Williams o Vita nei boschi di Thoreau con le loro esistenze di quieta disperazione, anche se deWitt sceglie di raccontare il momento in cui la vita del suo protagonista imbocca una vera svolta». Kirkus Reviews «Il racconto dolceamaro di un bibliotecario in pensione. DeWitt infonde colore ed eccentricità nei suoi personaggi. Un romanzo che ti prende e non ti lascia fino all’ultima, esilarante pagina». Publishers Weekly «DeWitt ha scelto di dar voce a un narratore incredibilmente acuto e originale». The New York Times

THE INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Winner, 2024 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Winner, Ken Kesey Award for Fiction From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself. Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts 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 center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance 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 façade 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 of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob’s experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life. With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert’s condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.

"Bob Comet is a retired librarian, isolated but not lonely, living out his quiet days in a mint-colored house in Oregon, surrounded by his books and small comforts. One morning, out on his daily walk, he performs an act of kindness that brings him into contact with a nearby senior center, where he soon begins volunteering. Here, as a community of peers and friends gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of hischaracter are revealed. Behind Bob Comet''s plain facade is the story of an unhappy child''s runaway adventure, of true love found and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in vocation, and the ultimate acceptance of a life lived to the side of the masses. The Librarianist is a wide-ranging and ambitious homage to the life lived through and for literature. With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, deWitt celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity"--

Una madre, un hijo y un gato habitado por el espíritu del difunto marido. Una comedia desopilante y melancólica. Frances Price y su hijo Malcolm –ya adulto, pero que sigue viviendo con ella– llevan una vida sofisticada y regalada en el más glamouroso Manhattan, gracias a la fabulosa herencia del difunto marido de ella: un marido sobre cuya muerte planean ciertas sospechas que la señalan. Esos rumores la han dotado de un aura de viuda negra, pero no le han impedido seguir disfrutando de infinitos caprichos a golpe de tarjeta de crédito. Hasta que tanto exceso acaba agotando la cuenta bancaria y de pronto madre e hijo se ven en la ruina y con la necesidad de comenzar de nuevo. Emprenden una huida hacia adelante con destino a París, donde ambos fueron felices en algún momento de su pasado. Frances apenas deja nada atrás, y Malcolm tan solo a una novia eterna con la que nunca ha acabado de llegar a ningún lado. Los acompaña en el viaje –por mar, en un transatlántico– Pequeño Frank, el gato de la familia, al que deberán introducir clandestinamente en Francia. Hay un motivo de peso para llevarlo con ellos: Frances está convencida de que en el cuerpo de ese felino habita el espíritu de su difunto marido. Y cuando, ya en París, el gato se da a la fuga, madre e hijo iniciarán una búsqueda que reunirá a un excéntrico plantel de personajes: una pitonisa con la que Malcolm ha mantenido una relación carnal en el transatlántico, una expatriada americana deseosa de aventuras, un tímido detective privado... Manejando con endiablada precisión su particularísimo y delicioso humor, Patrick deWitt nos regala una historia extravagante protagonizada por personajes estrafalarios, incapaces de desenvolverse en el mundo real, incapaces de madurar, refugiados en ensueños y pequeños placeres para tratar de escabullirse de su inmensa soledad.

Ein als Katze reinkarnierter Ehemann, seine Witwe und ihr Sohn begeben sich auf eine sonderbare Reise nach Paris. Der Überraschungserfolg aus den USA: ein verrückt-liebenswürdiger Roman über eine seltsame Mutter-Sohn-Beziehung und eine Reise, die es in sich hat. Frances und Malcom Price sind wohl das unterhaltsamste Mutter-Sohn-Duo New Yorks. Ein Großteil von Frances'' Bekanntheit beruht auf der Tatsache, dass sie, als sie den toten Körper ihres Mannes entdeckte, zu einem Skiwochenende aufbrach, anstatt die Behörden zu alarmieren. Gewöhnt an ein Leben voller Luxus, muss sie sich ad hoc etwas einfallen lassen, denn Frances hat das Erbe ihres Mannes jahrzehntelang verprasst und ist jetzt pleite. Zusammen mit ihrem Kater Kleiner Frank, den Frances für die Reinkarnation ihres Mannes hält, fliehen die Prices nach Paris. Als Kleiner Frank verschwindet, trommeln sie allerlei skurriles Personal zusammen, um den Kater, der ein Geheimnis mit sich trägt, wiederzufinden.

Una hilarante y emocionante novela de iniciación sobre un joven mayordomo que descubre los misterios de la vida y las heridas del amor. Lucy Minor, un joven que está dejando atrás la adolescencia y adentrándose en el mundo adulto, se marcha del pueblo entre montañas del que no ha salido jamás. Lo hace después de sufrir un desengaño amoroso y constatar que en ese lugar en el que abundan los rudos gigantones será siempre un marginado. Lleva en el bolsillo una carta con una oferta de trabajo: un puesto de ayudante de mayordomo en el castillo Von Aux. El ingenuo Lucy se topará con personajes variopintos: un mayordomo dado a filosofar y a la melancolía; una cocinera inepta que no acepta críticas; un aristócrata que cada día envía una desesperada carta de amor sin obtener nunca respuesta; unos peculiares guerrilleros que combaten en las montañas sin saber muy bien por qué; dos ladrones profesionales que ejercen su oficio en los trenes, y Klara, la hija de uno de ellos... Rodeado por esta galería de excéntricos, Lucy indagará en la misteriosa desaparición de su antecesor, descubrirá en el castillo a un ser humano salvaje que come roedores, será testigo de una extraña orgía en la que una tarta se convierte en instrumento sadomasoquista, escuchará algunas historias sobre pérfidos seductores y maestros del engaño y, sobre todo, irá descubriendo las pasiones y pesares del mundo adulto y los vaivenes del amor, que «no es para pusilánimes». DeWitt toma como punto de partida la novela centroeuropea, los antihéroes de Robert Walser y el universo kafkiano, y los mezcla con un protagonista que parece salido de un slapstick con unas gotas de cine expresionista. El resultado es un Bildungsroman posmoderno, que combina un humor descacharrante con una profunda mirada sobre las incertezas y perplejidades de un joven ante las paradojas de la vida.

Un jeune homme du nom de Lucien Minor, dit Lucy, accepte un poste de sous-majordome au château Von Aux, lugubre forteresse sise au cœur d''un massif alpin. Et découvre bientôt que ce lieu aussi inquiétant que fantomatique recèle les plus noirs secrets. Un conte cruel et grinçant qui a pour protagonistes une étrange humanité, toute pétrie de mensonges, de mauvaise foi, de malignité et de perversité mais aussi d''innocence.Avec ce roman aussi ludique qu''initiatique, où résonnent les accents d''un Edgar Allan Poe, d''un Calvino, ou d''un Kafka (voire d''un Bram Stoker...), Patrick deWitt, après le succès de son inoubliable roman, Les Frères Sisters, fait une nouvelle fois la preuve d''un exceptionnel tempérament d''écrivain capable de mettre tous les schémas du conte au service d''une passionnante exploration du monde ténébreux des passions humaines, entre dérision, fantaisie et cruauté.

A love story, an adventure story, a fable without a moral, and an ink-black comedy of manners, international bestselling author Patrick deWitt''s new novel is about a young man named Lucien (Lucy) Minor, who accepts employment at the foreboding Castle Von Aux. While tending to his new post as undermajordomo, he soon discovers the place harbours many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle''s master, Baron Von Aux. Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for begetting brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux. While tending to his new post as undermajordomo, he soon discovers the place harbours many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle''s master, Baron Von Aux. In the local village, he also encounters thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty whose love he must compete for with the exceptionally handsome partisan soldier, Adolphus. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder. Undermajordomo Minor is a triumphant ink-black comedy of manners by the Governor General''s Award-winning author of The Sisters Brothers. It is an adventure, and a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behaviour, but above all it is a love story. And Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.

Charlie and Eli Sisters live in Oregon City and work for the Commodore, magnate and possible political aspirer who pulls a lot of strings in the shadows and has multiple and varied businesses. The brothers are his hired killers, to call a spade a spade, and at times his executioners. This time they are on their way to Sacramento, California to carry out a new job for their boss, and make sure Hermann Kermit Warm, a gold digger, ends up dead. The novel takes place in 1851, at the height of the Gold Rush.

Het Wilde Westen, omstreeks 1850. Het zijn de dagen van de goudkoorts en Hermann Kermit Warm moet dood. Aldus is bevolen door de mysterieuze Commodore. Zijn twee handlangers, de beruchte huurmoordenaars Eli en Charlie Sisters, gaan op pad om hun prooi te zoeken en ervoor te zorgen dat de wil van de Commodore geschiedt. Voor de liefhebbers van de Coen-brothers en Cormac McCarthy.

En art skælmeroman der foregår midt under guldfeberen. De umage brødre og lejemordere Eli og Charles Sisters, får til opgave at likvidere en tyvagtig guldgraver. Det bringer de to på en farefuld færd fra Oregon til San Francisco, og undervejs forandres forholdet mellem dem for altid

Traditional Chinese edition of The Sisters Brothers, a historical novel which won the 75th Governor General''s Literary Awards and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2011. In Traditional Chinese. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.

Kanadischer Autor, geb. 1975. - Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts machen sich die Brüder und Auftragskiller Charlie und Eli Sisters auf nach San Francisco, um den Goldsucher Hermann Warm zu jagen, wobei sie auf viele von der Gier nach Gold angetriebene Leute treffen.

Winner of the Governor General''s Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers'' Trust Fiction Prize, the Prix des libraires du Quebec and the Stephen Leacock Medal. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize. Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die: Eli and Charlie Sisters can be counted on for that. Though Eli has never shared his brother’s penchant for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. On the road to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside San Francisco — and from the back of his long-suffering one-eyed horse — Eli struggles to make sense of his life without abandoning the job he''s sworn to do. Patrick deWitt, acclaimed author of Ablutions, doffs his hat to the classic Western, and then transforms it into a comic tour-de-force with an unforgettable narrative voice that captures all the absurdity, melancholy, and grit of the West — and of these two brothers, bound to each other by blood and scars and love.

In our third anthology, Aimee Bender introduces us to a young woman unable to summon the desire to sleep with her husband without payment in cash, Matt Sumell''s protagonist feels capable of anything but can save no one, Rick Moody charts the rise an fall of a romance via Twitter, Patrick deWitt presents a bleak, funny tale of two movers who are going nowhere, and Jenny Offill chronicles the awkward vigil of a man caring for his terminally ill ex-wife.