Numero Zero - Paperback

by Umberto Eco (Author), Richard Dixon (Translator)

"Eco combines his delight in suspense with astute political satire in this brainy, funny, neatly lacerating thriller." --Booklist

1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured and shot by local partisans. The precise circumstances of Il Duce's death remain controversial.

1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed hack writer, is offered a fee he can't resist to ghostwrite a book. His subject: a fledgling newspaper, which happens to be financed by a powerful media magnate. As Colonna gets to know the team, he learns of the editor's paranoid theory that Mussolini's corpse was a body double and part of a wider Fascist plot. It's the scoop the newspaper desperately needs. The evidence? He's working on it.

It's all there: media hoaxes, Mafiosi, the CIA, the Pentagon, blackmail, love, gossip, and murder. A clash of forces that have shaped Italy since World War II--from Mussolini to Berlusconi. Numero Zero is the work of a master storyteller.

"Although Numero Zero takes place in 1992, Eco may as well be describing our current journalistic landscape of hot takes and click bait." --Los Angeles Times

"Readers of Elena Ferrante or Rachel Kushner will likely catch the barbs in [Eco's] clever absurdities." --Vulture

Front Jacket

From the best-selling author of The Name of the Rose, an enthralling new conspiracy thriller

1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured and shot by local partisans. The precise circumstances of Il Duce s death remain controversial.

1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed hack writer, is offered a fee he can t resist to ghostwrite a book. His subject: a fledgling newspaper, which happens to be financed by a powerful media magnate. As Colonna gets to know the team, he learns of the editor s paranoid theory that Mussolini s corpse was a body double and part of a wider Fascist plot. It s the scoop the newspaper desperately needs. The evidence? He s working on it.

It s all there: media hoaxes, Mafiosi, the CIA, the Pentagon, blackmail, love, gossip, and murder. A clash of forces that have shaped Italy since World War II from Mussolini to Berlusconi. Farcical, serious, satiric, and tragic (Le Point, France), Numero Zero is the work of a master storyteller.
"

Back Jacket

#1 Italian bestseller

One of the most influential thinkers of our time. Los Angeles Times

1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured and shot by local partisans. The precise circumstances of Il Duce s death remain controversial.

1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed hack writer, is offered a fee he can t resist to ghostwrite a book. His subject: a fledgling newspaper, which happens to be financed by a powerful media magnate. As Colonna gets to know the team, he learns of the editor s paranoid theory that Mussolini s corpse was a body double and part of a wider Fascist plot. It s the scoop the newspaper desperately needs. The evidence? He s working on it.

It s all there: media hoaxes, Mafiosi, the CIA, the Pentagon, blackmail, love, gossip, and murder. A clash of forces that have shaped Italy since World War II from Mussolini to Berlusconi. Farcical, serious, satiric, and tragic (Le Point, France), Numero Zero is the work of a master storyteller.

UMBERTO ECO (1932 2016) was the author of numerous essay collections and seven novels, including The Name of the Rose, The Prague Cemetery, and Inventing the Enemy. He received Italy s highest literary award, the Premio Strega, was named a Chevalier de la Legion d Honneur by the French government, and was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Author Biography

UMBERTO ECO has written numerous essay collections and five novels, including The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum. He received Italy's highest literary award, the Premio Strega, was named a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government, and is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.