Library of Brothel
A Globe and Mail Spring 2026 Read
The long-anticipated, wildly inventive new novel by the Irish-Canadian writer whose previous work won the Amazon First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Goldsmith’s Prize (UK).
“One of the most unique, most compelling voices in fiction.” Toronto Star
“Like her absurdist compatriots – Beckett, Joyce, O’Brien – Schofield’s novels are existentially confounding, syntactically wild, and buckshot with wit.” The Guardian (UK)
“Schofield’s style feels almost decadently addictive.” The New Yorker
"Do you want to come in? Come here. Come in. Stop resisting. You are on the mat now. Just step over it. And in you come."
Enter Anakana Schofield’s bedazzling "Library of Brothel": a building perched in a city where jobs are scarce, no one can find a date, and many struggle just to be housed. Rumours swirl around the crumbling structure and rapacious developers have their eyes on it. But what we find inside is a unique economy: customers take shelter, workers love their professions, and each room offers a new kind of intellectual stimulation. How can such a precarious place survive?
Riotous, dramatic, passionate and funny, Library of Brothel is a cri de coeur for human connection and the right to meaningful work.
The long-anticipated, wildly inventive new novel by the Irish-Canadian writer whose previous work won the Amazon First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Goldsmith’s Prize (UK).
“One of the most unique, most compelling voices in fiction.” Toronto Star
“Like her absurdist compatriots – Beckett, Joyce, O’Brien – Schofield’s novels are existentially confounding, syntactically wild, and buckshot with wit.” The Guardian (UK)
“Schofield’s style feels almost decadently addictive.” The New Yorker
"Do you want to come in? Come here. Come in. Stop resisting. You are on the mat now. Just step over it. And in you come."
Enter Anakana Schofield’s bedazzling "Library of Brothel": a building perched in a city where jobs are scarce, no one can find a date, and many struggle just to be housed. Rumours swirl around the crumbling structure and rapacious developers have their eyes on it. But what we find inside is a unique economy: customers take shelter, workers love their professions, and each room offers a new kind of intellectual stimulation. How can such a precarious place survive?
Riotous, dramatic, passionate and funny, Library of Brothel is a cri de coeur for human connection and the right to meaningful work.
