Carl knows more than most how hard it can be to find one’s place in an imperfect world. Abandoned by his mother, scorned by his father, cuckolded by his wife, too tall, too naive, too unlucky, even the dogs are laughing behind his back.

Carl has one good thing going for him and that’s his friends. They’re generous with advice and lessons. Cyril is teaching him how to pass for a Newfoundlander. Edith’s got a woman’s eye on him. Norah is teaching him how to swim, row and to love again, and Henry’s got a plan sure to solve all Carl’s problems.

Unfortunately, in Carl’s world, lessons are always learned too late and fools pay a lifetime of regret to become an ounce wiser. There is no reward for innocence, no guarantee of trust and no lack of ambiguity. Yet, it’s a world where even the most imperfect can claim their share of happiness and where a single day of fine weather can make up for the worst of seasons.

Read about and discuss "An Imperfect Librarian" at http://imperfectlibrarian.blogspot.com"

Elizabeth Murphy is an award-winning researcher and non-fiction writer from Newfoundland. She has fond memories of earlier years before she became a professor at Memorial University when she was working in a public library shelving books and taking her breaks in a basement filled with shelf after shelf of old, discarded books full of secrets and stories. She lives in St. John’s with her small library, grown son and illiterate but nonetheless communicative pooch. An Imperfect Librarian is her first novel.

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"Splendid, clever and entertaining" - Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading, and The Library at Night

“Newfoundland and Labrador has produced yet another very fine writer. Elizabeth Murphy’s An Imperfect Librarian is clever and compassionate, witty and heartfelt. Laced with surprises and humour, it is a wonderfully entertaining read. ” – Leo Furey, author of The Long Run

“An Imperfect Librarian is a quirky, witty novel with a great deal to offer — in particular, the best fictional depiction yet of what it feels like to be a 'come from away' in the city where everybody knows everyone’s name." - Trudy Morgan-Cole, critic/author of The Violent Friendship of Esther Johnson and By the Rivers of Brooklyn

“A great book for people who love books, read books, collect books, catalogue books, treasure books, memorize books, covet books, crave books or ferret books away.” – Joan Sullivan, The Telegram

“Witty and sharp, full of stinging one-liners, An Imperfect Librarian is a brisk and memorable journey through the workaday lives of some delightfully arresting characters.” – Paul Butler, author of 1892 and NaGeira