'Brilliant, funny, encompassing everything you ever wanted to know about practically everything (including numerology, James Bond's foes, and the construction of sewers) this book is both extraordinarily learned and well plotted' -Sunday Times

'Endlessly diverting... Even more intricate and absorbing than his international bestseller The Name of the Rose' -Time

Three book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired to have some fun by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into frantic search for the truth.

'An intellectual adventure story as sensational thrilling and packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Count of Monte Cristo' -Washington Post Book World

'Umberto Eco is literature's great magician...He offers us many passagesof brilliance, and treats us to a Shakespearean alternation of paroxysm and intimacy, madness and wisdom. There is something here for everyone. His genius affords his readers a selection of delights that will make their heads spin' -Le Monde

'Ric and witty'