Umberto Eco was born in Alessandria, in northern Italy, in 1932, and died in 2016. For decades he was a university professor and one of the great scholars of signs: how meanings are made, how they are read and how they are bent.
In 1980, aged nearly fifty, he published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, which won the Strega Prize in 1981 and became a worldwide success. It is a story of murders in a medieval abbey, but also a book about books, laughter and the fear of knowledge. Foucault's Pendulum, from 1988, plays with conspiracy theories and the people who invent them; Baudolino, from 2000, is a picaresque adventure about a charming liar.
Eco wrote for curious readers, unafraid of Latin quotations or digressions. His novels reward patience with a very particular pleasure: the pleasure of understanding.
Their books in our catalogue
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The Name of the RoseUmberto Eco
The Name of the RoseUmberto Eco
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
In November 1327, a sharp-witted Franciscan friar and his young novice arrive at a northern Italian abbey just as a string of strange deaths begins. Amid wary monks, heated theological quarrels and a labyrinthine library that jealously hides its books, the inquiry unfolds like a slow game of chess. A rich, immersive read where a detective story meets the mind of the Middle Ages.
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Foucault's PendulumUmberto Eco
Foucault's PendulumUmberto Eco
Foucault's Pendulum
Umberto Eco
Three Milan editors, weary of manuscripts about the occult, playfully invent a grand secret plot that explains everything, only to find their creation taking on a life of its own. Eco weaves Kabbalah, alchemy, the Templars and conspiracy theories into a dense, ironic, labyrinthine novel. A demanding, slow-burning read that rewards curiosity with wit, ideas and mounting unease.
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BaudolinoUmberto Eco
BaudolinoUmberto Eco
Baudolino
Umberto Eco
A peasant boy from northern Italy, adopted by Frederick Barbarossa, recounts his life amid the chaos of Constantinople, and his shameless lies have a way of becoming history. Eco blends picaresque adventure, medieval legend and a quest east for the fabled kingdom of Prester John, full of strange creatures and wit. A learned, playful ride through the line between truth and storytelling.
