Nineteenth-century Europe abounds with conspiracy both ghastly and mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian priests are strangled with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate black masses by night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres.

But what if, behind all of these conspiracies, lies just one man?

Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012 'Eco's most accessible novel since The Name of the Rose, a temptingly complex tale of 19th-century plots and conspiracies' - Sunday Times

About the Author
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) wrote fiction, literary criticism and philosophy. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a major international bestseller. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero along with many brilliant collections of essays.

Reviews
[This] magnificent new novel... marks a return to the heady mixture of absorbing ideas and down-and-dirty historical detail that made The Name of the Rose such an international bestseller in the 1980's -- Adam Lively * Sunday Times *
This is a great mystery novel about paranoia, prejudice and forgery... We gain access to a world of city streets, strange anecdotes, gourmet menus, and conspiratorial minds... Eco's best novel since The Name of the Rose * Independent *
A smartly entertaining fin-de-siecle romp * Independent *
An extremely readable narrative of betrayal, terrorism, murder and gourmadising... The great trick Eco pulls off here is to combine the most chilling of ideas - the origin of a hoax that led to genocide - with, elsewhere in the novel, an often funny lightness of touch... In other hands, this novel could have been grim. But you end up feeling, despite all the darkness, that Eco is one of literature's great optimists -- Sinclair Mckay * Daily Telegraph *
Imagine Dan Brown adorned with a PhD: that's Umberto Eco * Observer *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099555971
Author Umberto Eco
Format Paperback
Page Count 576
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 416g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 28mm