Treinta años después de publicar El nombre de la rosa**,
Umberto Umberto Eco vuelve para mostrarnos que, en la literatura y en la
vida, nada es lo que parece y nadie es quien realmente dice ser.**
**
** París, 1897. Un hombre escribe sentado a una mesa en una habitación
abarrotada de muebles: he aquí al capitán Simonini, un piamontés
afincado en la capital francesa, que desde muy joven se dedica al noble
arte de crear documentos falsos.
Hombre de pocas palabras, misógino y glotón impenitente, el capitán se
inspira en los folletines de Dumas y Sue para dar fe de complots
inexistentes, fomentar intrigas o difamar a las grandes figuras de la
política europea. Caballero sin escrúpulos, Simonini trabaja al servicio
del mejor postor: si antes fue el gobierno italiano quien pagó por sus
imposturas, luego llegaron los encargos de Francia y Prusia, e incluso
Hitler acabaría aprovechándose de sus malvados oficios...**
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ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
**Thirty years after publishing of The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
returns with this novel to ensure us that in literature and in life,
nothing is what it seems, and nobody is who they say they are.
**Paris, 1897. A man writes sitting at a table in a room crammed with
furniture: it is Captain Simonini, a Piedmontese man living in the
French capital, who since a young age has been fully devoted to the
noble art of creating false documents.
Man of few words, a misogynist, and an unapologetic overeater, the
captain would get inspiration from Dumas and Sue's stories to show
nonexistent plots, to encourage conspiracies, or to defame the great
figures of European politics. An unscrupulous gentleman, Simonini worked
for the highest bidder: at first it was the Italian government who paid
for his deceptions, then he was commissioned by France and Prussia, and
even Hitler took advantage of their evil scams.
"A whirlwind tour of conspiracy and political intrigue...this dark tale
is delightfully embellished with sophisticated and playful commentary
on, among other things, Freud, metafiction, and the challenges of
historiography." --Booklist
"Intriguing, hilarious....a tale by a master." --Publishers Weekly
boxed review
"He's got a humdinger in this new high-level whodunit...a perplexing,
multilayered, attention-holding mystery." --Kirkus, starred
**
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