Bibliophilia

by Michael Griffith

Genres: Short Stories

Synopsis

In the title novella, 'Bibliophilia,' the unlikely protagonist is a postmenopausal university librarian pressed into reluctant duty as a 'sex cop,' whose job is to troll the stacks for students intent on illicit coupling among the classics. The stories are equally zany and wide-ranging, featuring, among others: a hair scientist who is going bald; an English professor trapped in a monkey cage; a mother who hands her toddler to a mugger while she rummages for money in her purse; a nightwatchman in a used-hubcap yard; and the owner of a landfill who is also the proud father of a teenage chess prodigy. What the fictions have in common is an astute mixture of comedy and pathos. Taking seemingly ludicrous premises, Griffith manages, in surprising ways, to render them poignant.

In the title novella, 'Bibliophilia,' the unlikely protagonist is a postmenopausal university librarian pressed into reluctant duty as a 'sex cop,' whose job is to troll the stacks for students intent on illicit coupling among the classics. The stories are equally zany and wide-ranging, featuring, among others: a hair scientist who is going bald; an English professor trapped in a monkey cage; a mother who hands her toddler to a mugger while she rummages for money in her purse; a nightwatchman in a used-hubcap yard; and the owner of a landfill who is also the proud father of a teenage chess prodigy. What the fictions have in common is an astute mixture of comedy and pathos. Taking seemingly ludicrous premises, Griffith manages, in surprising ways, to render them poignant.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Publisher: Arcade

Print pages: 240