Umberto Eco (1932–2016) wrote fiction, literary criticism and philosophy. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a major international bestseller. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero along with many brilliant collections of essays.

"No comparable book has ever existed... The exuberance of the narrative and sheer sumptuousness of the language possess a precision for which everything in Eco's earlier writing had prepared us, but equally a panache for which nothing had" Sunday Times "Vintage Eco...full of verbal conjuring: both an enjoyable fable and a skillful parade of recent literary theory and history of science" The Times "A great feast of words" Times Literary Supplement "Every age gets the classics it deserves. I hope we deserve The Island of the Day Before...This novel belings in the great tradition of Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Johnson's Rasselas and Voltaire's Candide. We are left energized, exhilarated by the sheer sensory excitement of the music's telling." New York Times Book Review