Two Books by Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco, professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, Italy, was known for his vast scholarly erudition, which he displays both in his nonfiction, such as On Literature and Six Walks in the Fictional Woods , and in his novels, like the Medieval mystery The Name of the Rose , and the conspiracy theory-enamored Foucault's Pendulum. In 2004, Eco published a new novel (released in English translation in 2005) called The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana . Unlike his previous novels, this work was light on erudition (at least by Eco's standards) and heavy on autobiographical elements. The story concerns Yambo, a rare book dealer of approximately Eco's age (and also like Eco, from Milan) who wakes from a coma with an unusual form of amnesia: he can remember almost nothing of his personal past, but seems to have an eidetic memory fo...