The Dark Library
The Dark Library by Cyrille Martinez, published by Coach House Books in 2020, is a work of fiction that explores the enchanting and often overlooked aspects of libraries. In this edition, consisting of 167 pages, readers are invited into a world where books possess life and personality, featuring characters like the Angry Young Book and the Old Historian. The narrative delves into the dynamics of reading and the evolving role of libraries in a digital age, posing thought-provoking questions about the nature of books and readers.
Throughout The Dark Library, Martinez presents a whimsical yet critical examination of libraries, showcasing a variety of unique characters, including the Blue, Mauve, and Yellow Librarians. As the story unfolds, a horde of student workers threatens the sanctity of the library by scanning every book, prompting reflections on the future of these magical spaces. This literary work blends elements of magical realism and absurdism, making it a distinctive meditation on the significance of libraries and the act of reading in contemporary society.
Official synopsis Publisher
Libraries are magical places. But what if they’re even more magical than we know?
In Cyrille Martinez’s library, the books are alive: not just their ideas or their stories, but the books themselves. Meet the Angry Young Book, who has strong opinions about who reads what and why. He’s tired of people reading bestsellers, so he places himself on the desks of those who might appreciate him. Meet the Old Historian who mysteriously vanished from the stacks. Meet the Blue Librarian, the Mauve Librarian, the Yellow Librarian, and spend a day with the Red Librarian trying to banish coffee cups and laptops.
Then one day there are no empty desks anywhere in the Great Library. A great horde of student workers has descended, and they will scan every single book in the library: the much-borrowed, the neglected, the popular, the obscure. What will happen to the library then? Will it still be necessary?
The Dark Library is a theoretical fiction, a meditation on what libraries mean in our digital world. Has the act of reading changed? What is a reader? A book? Martinez, a librarian himself, has written a love letter to the urban forest of the dark, wild library, where ideas and stories roam free.
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