He is the author of nineteen works of fiction (notably Europa, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997). His first novel, Tongues of Flame, won both the Betty Trask Award and Somerset Maugham Award in 1986. In the same year, Parks was awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Loving Roger. Other highly praised titles were Shear, Destiny, Judge Savage, Cleaver, and most recently In Extremis. He has also had a number of stories published in The New Yorker.