Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor haunted by an obsession with the great French literary genius, Gustave Flaubert. As Geoffrey investigates the mystery of the stuffed parrot Flaubert borrowed from the Museum of Rouen to help research one of his novels, we learn an enormous amount about the writer's work, family, lovers, thought processes, health and obsessions. But we also gradually come to learn some important and shocking details about Geoffrey himself.

'An intricate and delightful novel' (Graham Greene) from Booker prize-winning author Julian Barnes.

About the Author
Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Nothing To Be Frightened Of, which won the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize in Russia. In 2017 he was awarded the Legion d'honneur.

Reviews
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
Endless food for thought, beautifully written... A tour de force -- Germaine Greer
A gem: an unashamed literary novel that is also unashamed to be readable, and broadly entertaining. Bravo! -- John Irving
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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099540588
Author Julian Barnes
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Vintage Classics
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 138g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 12mm