When Olivier sets sail for the nascent United States-ostensibly to make a study of the penal system, but more precisely to save his neck from one more revolution-Parrot will be there, too: as spy for the marquis, and as protector, foe, and foil for Olivier.Īs the narrative shifts between the perspectives of Parrot and Olivier, between their picaresque adventures apart and together-in love and politics, prisons and finance, homelands and brave new lands-a most unlikely friendship begins to take hold. They are born on different sides of history, but their lives will be connected by an enigmatic one-armed marquis. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerant English printer. Olivier-an improvisation on the life of Alexis de Tocqueville-is the traumatized child of aristocratic survivors of the French Revolution. And with their story, Peter Carey explores the experiment of American democracy with dazzling inventiveness and with all the richness and surprise of characterization, imagery, and language that we have come to expect from this superlative writer.Parrot and Olivier in America has been shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.įrom the two-time Booker Prize–winning author comes an irrepressibly funny new novel set in early nineteenth-century America. When Olivier sets sail for the nascent United Statesostensibly to make a study of the penal system, but more precisely to save his neck from one more revolutionParrot will be there, too: as spy for the marquis, and as protector, foe, and foil for Olivier.Īs the narrative shifts between the perspectives of Parrot and Olivier, between their picaresque adventures apart and togetherin love and politics, prisons and finance, homelands and brave new landsa most unlikely friendship begins to take hold.

Olivieran improvisation on the life of Alexis de Tocquevilleis the traumatized child of aristocratic survivors of the French Revolution. From the two-time Booker Prizewinning author comes an irrepressibly funny new novel set in early nineteenth-century America.

Parrot and olivier in america