Difficult Patrons: A Novel

A darkly funny novel about chronic pain, obligation, and survival, tracing a young librarian’s descent through the intersecting failures of healthcare, family, and public institutions, from the author of These Ghosts Are Family.

During her first few months on the job, Valerie Channer has learned that librarians do far more than shelve books. They are also social workers, crisis counselors, and reluctant witnesses to the quiet catastrophes unfolding daily among the library’s most difficult pa...