Synopses & Reviews
"Brilliantly written and gorgeously illustrated . . . As we accompany Yambo on his trail of self-discovery, we see Umberto Eco, one of the great minds of our era, reveal a little of his heart." --Chicago Sun-Times
"Eco . . . leaves the reader charmed . . . [His] latest feat of imagination burns with humane intelligence." --Philadelphia Inquirer
What if you woke up tomorrow and remembered nothing of your life? The faces of your spouse and children are strange, and the outlines of your childhood are only a blur. This is the crisis that Yambo, an Italian bookseller, faces when he regains consciousness after suffering a stroke. He is shocked to find, however, that he can remember every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, and a wealth of literary quotations.
Desperate to retrieve his past, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and life races before him in a series of images, as Yambo struggles to capture the most elusive onethat of his first love.
"Eco continues to write some of the most timeless and consistently engaging fiction out there." --Miami Herald
Umberto Eco is a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna and the bestselling author of numerous novels and essays. He lives in Milan. Translated from the Italian by Geoffrey Brock
Review
"[C]ompelling storytelling and greatly sympathetic characters..." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"Having lost all his memories except for every book and poem he has ever read, rare-books dealer Yambro flees to the old family home to reconstruct his life which spools by here in graphic-novel format." Library Journal
Review
"A head-spinning tour through the corridors of history and popular culture, and one of this sly entertainer's liveliest yet." Kirkus Reviews
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"A fascinating meditation on the importance of memory and the power of human consciousness...a thoughtful, satisfying commentary on how easily modern society often dismisses the importance of the past." Denver Post
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"Warm, challenging, dizzying and ultimately rewarding..." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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"A very strange yet wonderfully mesmerizing tale....This is not for everyone. I had to push a bit, but it lingers and haunts and, once again, displays Eco's art in all its self-referential, heartfelt glory." Sam Coale, Providence Journal
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"[A] work of spectacular appetites and epic confusion....Too long by half, it nevertheless rewards the patient reader with a tale that's both intellectually provoking and, in the end, emotionally serious." Washington Post
Review
"The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is impressive in the sheer breadth of knowledge intertwined to form a national consciousness, and the tale it tells is engaging, but it could have had even more resonance if its protagonist had been less self-absorbed. To a certain degree, his life story shares the same shortcoming that Yambo diagnoses in himself: 'I don't have feelings, I only have memorable sayings.'" Yvonne Zipp, Christian Science Monitor (read the entire Christian Science Monitor review)
Synopsis
Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory-he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, but he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, and remembers nothing about his parents or his childhood. In an effort to retrieve his past, he withdraws to the family home somewhere in the hills between Milan and Turin. There, in the sprawling attic, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and the life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to capture one simple, innocent image: that of his first love.
A fascinating, abundant novel-wide-ranging, nostalgic, funny, full of heart-from the incomparable Eco.
Synopsis
International bestselling and award-winning author Umberto Eco's illustrated novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is an insidiously witty and provocative story (Los Angeles Times).
Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory -- he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, but he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, and remembers nothing about his parents or his childhood. In an effort to retrieve his past, he withdraws to the family home somewhere in the hills between Milan and Turin.
There, in the sprawling attic, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and the life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to capture one simple, innocent image: that of his first love.
A fascinating, abundant novel -- wide-ranging, nostalgic, funny, full of heart -- from the incomparable Eco.
Synopsis
Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, but he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, and remembers nothing about his parents or his childhood. In an effort to retrieve his past, he withdraws to the family home somewhere in the hills between Milan and Turin. There, in the sprawling attic, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and the life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to capture one simple, innocent image: that of his first love.
A fascinating, abundant new novel-wide-ranging, nostalgic, funny, full of heart from the incomparable Eco.
About the Author
UMBERTO ECO was born in Alessandria, Italy in 1932. He is the author of five novels and numerous collections of essays. A semiotician, philosopher, medievalist, and for many years a professor at the University of Bologna, Eco is now president of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici there. He has received Italyand#39;s highest literary award, the Premio Strega, has been named a Chevalier de la Landeacute;gion dand#39;Honneur by the French government, and is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Milan.
Table of Contents
PART ONE: THE INCIDENT
1. The Cruelest Month 3
2. The Murmur of Mulberry Leaves 28
3. Someone May Pluck Your Flower 45
4. Alone through City Streets I Go 64
PART TWO: PAPER MEMORY
5. Clarabelle's Treasure 81
6. Il Nuovissimo Melzi 90
7. Eight Days in an Attic 117
8. When the Radio 159
9. But Pippo Doesn't Know 178
10. The Alchemist's Tower 212
11. Up There at Capocabana 227
12. Blue Skies Are on the Way 257
13. The Pallid Little Maiden 272
14. The Hotel of the Three Roses 295
PART THREE: OI NO?TOI
15. You're Back at Last, Friend Mist! 301
16. The Wind Is Whistling 325
17. The Provident Young Man 379
18. Lovely Thou Art as the Sun 406
sources of citations and Illustrations 451