Flaubert's Parrot shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 concerns the attempts of an increasingly bemused researcher to establish certain facts about a famous French novelist & the stuffed bird which used to sit on his desk A History of the World in 10 12 Chapters blends fact & fiction in a virtuoso kaleidoscope of vignettes from Noah's time to the present One of the author's most inventive works it was praised by Salman Rushdie as frequently brilliant funny thoughtful iconoclastic & a delight to read'