french

The two men at the heart of the novel couldn't be any more different: Olivier is the son of French aristocrats who (barely) survived the French Revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerate English printer. As the narrative unfurls, shifting between the perspectives of Olivier and Parrot, between the 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.

Thirty-year-old Antoine is forced to leave the city to return to his family in Provence. His father is sick, so he must assume the lifestyle he thought he had shed: driving the family grocery cart from hamlet to hamlet, delivering supplies to the few remaining inhabitants. Accompanied by Claire, a friend from Paris whom he has a secret crush on, Antoine gradually warms up to his experience in the country and his encounters with the villagers, who initially seem stubborn and gruff, but ultimately prove to be funny and endearing.

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Simon is dealing with the increased fragility of his loving yet preoccupied mother, Suzanne. When a Taiwanese film student, Song, is hired to help care for Simon, a unique extended family is formed. The two become completely dependent on each other, yet both are lost in separate dreams mirrored by a delicate, shiny red balloon. Rating: PG