Which of two stuffed parrots was the inspiration for one of Flaubert`s greatest stories? Why did the master keep changing the colour of Emma Bovary`s eyes? And why should it matter so much to Geoffrey Braithwaite, a retired doctor haunted by a private secret? In "Flaubert`s Parrot", Julian Barnes spins out a multiple mystery of obsession and betrayal (both scholarly and romantic) and creates an exuberant enquiry into the ways in which art mirrors life and then turns around to shape it.