I read this because I'd heard of it (was shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and thought I ought to! A fascinating and really unusual read, which I enjoyed even though I knew nothing about Flaubert beforehand!! I now know that he was a philosopher and writer, probably best known for his novel Madame Bovary for which he was taken to court by the government on a charge of immorality!

The novel is from the point of a view of a rather obsessive amateur Flaubert scholar. The wiki entry for the book sums it up well: The novel follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, visiting France and the Flaubert landmarks therein. While visiting various sites related to Flaubert, Geoffrey encounters two museums claiming to display the stuffed parrot which sat atop Flaubert's writing desk for a brief period while he wrote Un coeur simple. While trying to differentiate which is authentic Geoffrey ultimately learns that (n)either could be genuine, and Flaubert's parrot could be any one of fifty ("Une cinquantaine de perroquets!", p. 187) that had been held in the collection of the municipal museum.

One of the central themes of the novel is a figurehead of Postmodernism; subjectivism. For example, the novel provides three sequential chronologies of Flaubert's life: the first is optimistic (citing his successes, conquests, etc.), the second is negative (citing the deaths of his friends/lovers, his failures, illnesses etc.) and the third compiles quotations written by Flaubert in his journal at various points in his life. The attempts to find the real Flaubert mirror the attempt to find his parrot, i.e. apparent futility.

The scholar is an intriguing character; I would recommend this for an out-of-the-ordinary piece of fiction.

Sending this to Carolin in Germany as a RABCK along with a bookray book. Glad to get it travelling - hope you enjoy it!

Thank you very much for being so kind and sending me this extra book. Until now I only heard good things about Julian Barnes so I'm really looking forward to reading this book.

Unusual, REALLY unusual, obsessive and slow paced - that's the book ;)

I knew Flaubert before but of course now I know him much better, or at least Barnes'/Braithwaite's Flaubert...and in my opinion that's the message of the book. Everyone has a different picture of someone, something and life.

As I already said it was an unusual read and I especially enjoyed Barnes' talent. But the story...it didn't soooo much fit my taste. And this is probably my fault as I took the book with me to read it by the pool and it doesn't happen to be the typical summer-swimming pool book ;)

Still, it was nice and I'm looking forward to read the other book by this author on my bookshelf. Thanks again for sending it to me!

Hurray, you won the August Acts of Kindness Sweepstake :) I hope you like the book and that you get as much wonderful things from all over the world as I did in June!

And please don't forget to host the next Sweepstake in a few months. Enjoy!

Oh mama, this is something different! I've heard of the book, but have no idea whatsoever what to expect. Thank you for the sweeps gift!

I'm quite dumbfounded by the book! Dunno if I'm too stupid for it or just not stupid enough for it :D A really different read.

Taking the book to a local meet-up with me. Perhaps it'll find a new reader right away!