diff --git a/src/jack.py b/src/jack.py
index e309214..d12f30e 100644
--- a/src/jack.py
+++ b/src/jack.py
@@ -38,7 +38,20 @@ if _platform.system() == 'Windows':
     else:
         _libname = _find_library('libjack')
 else:
-    _libname = _find_library('jack')
+    # Ideally we would just stick the default after the current LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+    # and let dlopen find the implementation, but the dynamic loader won't
+    # respect any changes after starting the process.
+    # Instead we resolve the library manually to its absolute path.
+    import os
+    _relativepath = '/libjack@ext@'
+    _libname = '@jack@/lib' + _relativepath
+    libpath = os.environ.get('@libenv@')
+    if libpath:
+        for d in libpath.split(':'):
+            candidate = d + _relativepath
+            if os.path.isfile(candidate):
+                _libname = candidate
+                break
 
 if _libname is None:
     if _platform.system() == 'Darwin' and _platform.machine() == 'arm64':