A cryptic, highly literary murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the early 1300s. Narrated by a Benedictine novice tailing his master, an ingenious Franciscan friar sent on a mission of papal mediation, the duo become the de facto sleuths in solving a series of murders which seem to mirror the signifying events corresponding with the apocalyptic Seven Trumpets in the Book of Revelations. Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle and Jorge Luis Borges alike, this tale of secrets and intrigue features religious and political controversy, forbidden manuscripts, and a dangerous, labyrinthine library. — Joe Michon-Huneau
The international bestseller! A masterful gothic thriller set against the turbulence of medieval Italy.
The Name of the Rose
The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. But his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and nights of apocalyptic terror.
Brother William turns detective, and a uniquely deft one at that. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon--all sharpened to a glistening edge by his wry humor and ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where "the most interesting things happen at night."
As Brother William goes about unraveling the mystery of what happens at the abbey by day and by night, listeners step into a brilliant re-creation of the fourteenth century, with its dark superstitions and wild prejudices, its hidden passions and sordid intrigues. Virtuoso storyteller Umberto Eco conjures up a gloriously rich portrait of this world with such grace, ease, wit and love that you will become utterly intoxicated with the place and time, in The Name of the Rose.