BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE• From the internationally bestselling author of The Sense of an Ending comes the literary detective story of a retired doctor who is obsessed with the 19th century French author Flaubert—and with tracking down a stuffed parrot that once inspired him.
Julian Barnes playfully combines a detective story with a character study of its detective, embedded in a brilliant riff on literary genius.
A compelling weave of fiction and imaginatively ordered fact, Flaubert's Parrot is by turns moving and entertaining, witty and scholarly, and a tour de force of seductive originality.
'Julian Barnes' wry and graceful book, part novel, part stealthy literary criticism, traces the marks Flaubert made on a forgetting world. The writing is unfailingly sharp and often very funny, and among the best prose I have read in years' - Sunday Times
'Barnes manages to be erudite but extremely funny too… You never know what Barnes is going to do next and I admire that.’ - Caroline Rees ― Daily Express
'Delightful and enriching... A book to revel in' - Joseph Heller
'A gem: an unashamed literary novel that is also unashamed to be readable, and broadly entertaining. Bravo!' - John Irving
'Endless food for thought, beautifully written... A tour de force' - Germaine Greer
'Unputdownable... A mesmeric original' - Philip Larkin
