Was reminded again this morning by an exchange on Twitter between Stu and Jonathan Cape, how much I am looking forward to The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. But it is not due out until November here. Sigh. There is much controversy surrounding the novel but I want to read not for the buzz or the crazy sales but just because it is Eco. HMH synopsis goes like this:
Nineteenth-century Europe—from Turin to Prague to Paris—abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all of these conspiracies both real and imagined, lay one lone man? What if that evil genius created its most infamous document?
Wow. Sounds like a Dan Brown novel. And the cover design is not appealing. But again, it is Eco so on the list it goes.