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Description

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.

Reviews

"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 "A delight... Handsomely the best novel published in England in 1984" John Fowles