The Prague cemetery

 By Umberto Eco. An amnesiac tries to figure out who he is by writing his thoughts in a diary and explaining who he hates. It is 1897 and he is Captain Simonini, an accomplished forger with a talent for espionage, and he hates nearly everyone: Germans, Italians, Freemasons, Jesuits, women, but especially Jews. But what has caused him to lose his memory? And who is Abbe Dalla Piccola, the clergyman (or false clergyman) who shares his living quarters and seems to know more about our Simonini than Simonini himself? Thus opens Eco's much-anticipated sixth novel, a whirlwind tour of conspiracy and political intrigue that places one cunning and deeply cynical man at the center of a century's worth of diabolical deeds the most terrible of which being the forgery of one of the foundational documents of modern anti-Semitism. In another novelist's hands, the intrigue, mystery, and historical detail might be enough, but this is Eco, after all. Readers able to navigate the author's tricks and traps will find that this dark tale is delightfully embellished with sophisticated and playful commentary on, among other things, Freud, metafiction, and the challenges of historiography. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: If sales of the original Italian edition are any indication, librarians should expect considerable reader interest here. --Booklist (Check catalog)