Radial Books is an independent publisher of contemporary poetry and fiction.
One evening, a parrot appears in the backyard of a Boston computer scientist known only as the coder. He entices the bird to perch on him, but after it escapes, he suffers life-threatening injuries when he tries to track it down. Since no one else has seen the parrot, the coder and his family question his judgment. Perhaps his fondness for a powerful psychedelic accounts for his troubles. The advent of a more sinister explanation plunges the coder into crisis. He must verify and destroy his assailant, or somehow heal a profound rift in his own psyche.
"The Parrot is a parade of images and a cavalcade of words, a cascade of language that attacks you, seduces you, overpowers you and fully pulls you down into its swirling undertow . . . [it's] a terrific book and a hell of an accomplishment." -- NEIL LABUTE, playwright, filmmaker, author of Seconds of Pleasure
"The Parrot is a stream-of-tragedy comic journey that will hit you from angles you will NEVER see coming. Hold on tight!" -- PATTON OSWALT, author of Silver Screen Fiend
"Kostival masterfully infuses this odd man-vs.-bird tale with gripping drama and subtle humor. Spooling out in one long, uninterrupted paragraph, The Parrot is a brainy novel that should appeal to the Pynchon/McElroy/Danielewski crowd, and makes a major contribution to the small but resplendent genre of psittacine fiction." -- STEVEN MOORE, author of The Novel: An Alternative History