Flaubert's parrot / A history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters

Two of Julian Barnes's most celebrated works appear together in this collection. "Flaubert's Parrot" follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a retired English doctor whose obsession with Gustave Flaubert leads him on a quixotic hunt for a stuffed parrot the French novelist once kept on his desk. What begins as literary detective work becomes an intimate portrait of grief, memory, and the futile desire to know another person completely. "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" takes a more radical form, refracting human history through a series of loosely connected narratives that range from a stowaway's account of Noah's ark to courtroom proceedings, shipwrecks, and surrealist dreamscapes.

Alex Jennings brings an extraordinary range to the material, moving fluidly between Braithwaite's dry, wounded wit and the tonal shifts Barnes demands across ten very different chapters. His restraint suits the first book's melancholy intelligence, while his versatility keeps the second's fragmented structure coherent and propulsive. At nearly eleven hours, the pairing rewards patient listeners with one of audiobook fiction's richer intellectual experiences.