Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14210 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-15
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Daily Mail
'..a suspenseful, witty tale...real brilliance lies in... Linus' tragic past, a story hinted at through a trail of clues...'

Daily Telegraph
'...this lyrical and soulful novella sees Chabon revisit the subject of wartime refugees...[of] his Pulitzer Prize winning work...'

Sunday Times
'Chabon's prose is as polished as one might expect from such a gifted literary magpie'

Customer Reviews

One complaint only - It's too short
Chabon's style is eclectic to say the least, and yet this has his voice stamped all over it. It's quirky, imaginative, and despite a fragile sadness which permeates the book, still has that redeeming sense of humour that makes all his books so poignant.

This is a kind of old fashioned detective story, an homage to Sherlock Holmes. Set in the Second World War it tells of the interaction of a young mute boy, his parrot and an old man, a famous, retired detective. This will clearly be his last case.

This is beautifully written and a truly wonderful story but it is disappointingly short.

Not a novel, not a short story.
Although highly recommended by a friend, this book didn't quite hit the mark for me. It seemed to lack purpose and the ending was kind of cute, but not satisfying.
The story revolves around Linus,a young Jewish refugee and his close companion, a grey parrot. When the parrot is stolen, the plight of the lonely young boy touches a spot in an old, retired, detective's heart, and he agrees to search for the bird.
I loved the idea of the parrot who spouted endless lists of apparently random numbers and the old man, an ageing Sherlock Holmes in his retirement cottage. But there didn't seem to be a lot else.
It was an easy read, but would have benefitted from being longer so we could really get involved with the characters.

excellent Holmesian pastiche
It's clever to combine the flourishing sub-genre of Holmesiamn pastiche with the Holocaust, and Chabon makes a good fist of it. The retired beekeeeper is now utterly forgotten and painfully ancient (Chabon describes the ravages of time wonderfully) but the mystery about the parrot who speaks long sequences of numbers is less satisfying. More a long short story or novella, it will leave some readers frustrated. Having said which, I thoroughly enjoyed it.