by PeterCarey (Author)
Olivier is an aristocrat, the traumatized child of survivors of the French Revolution. Parrot the son of an itinerant printer who always wanted to be an artist but has ended up a servant. Born on different sides of history, their lives will be brought together by their travels in America. When Olivier sets sail for America, ostensibly to study its prisons but in reality to save his neck from one more revolution - Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. As the narrative shifts between the perspectives of Parrot and Olivier, and their picaresque travels together and apart - in love and politics, prisons and the world of art - Peter Carey explores the adventure of American democracy, in theory and in practice, with dazzling wit and inventiveness.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 464
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 04 Feb 2010
ISBN 10: 0571253296
ISBN 13: 9780571253296
Book Overview: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America is the story of an extraordinary friendship across two continents, from the author of Amnesia, Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang.
Prizes: Shortlisted for Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010.