**AN INTERNATIONAL No. 1 BESTSELLER****Selected as a Washington Post Book of the Summer**''I absolutely adored it'' NINA STIBBEFrom bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes a novel about an ordinary man who thought life-s surprises were behind him - until a chance encounter changed everythingBob 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
