New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. dj. Hardcover first edition - His third novel, shortlisted for the 1984 Booker Prize, and winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. "On the surface, [this] book is the tale of an elderly English doctor's search for some intriguing details of Flaubert's life. Geoffrey Braithwaite seems to be involved in an attempt to establish whether a particularly fine, lovely, and ancient stuffed parrot is in fact one originally 'borrowed' by G. Flaubert from the Museum of Rouen and placed on his worktable during the writing of Un Coeur Simple, where it is called Loulou, the parrot of Felicit, the principal character of the tale. What begins as a droll and intriguing excursion into the minutiae of Flaubert's life and intellect, along with an attempt to solve the small puzzle of the parrot - or rather parrots, for there are two competing for the title of Gustave's avian confrere - soon devolves into something obscure and worrisome, the exploration of an arcane Braithwaite obsession that is perhaps even pathological. The first hint we have that all is not as it seems comes almost halfway into the book. . And from that point, things just get more and more curious, until they end in the most unexpected bang." (Andrew Himes) Cover praise from Graham Greene (who called it "intricate and delightful") among others. 190 pp. Dust jacket art by David Hockney. ISBN: 0-3945472x.