How baffling and dangerous sea travel was before the invention of longitude. How precious this discovery would have been to rival nations with global ambitions, such as Holland, France, Spain, and England. Why, it was the arms race of the Renaissance! And, Eco suggests, the holy grail for spies, including the dreamy young hero of this imaginative novel, Roberto della Griva. We first meet Roberto in what we learn is a typically ludicrous situation. Shipwrecked in the South Pacific, he finds refuge not on land, but on an oddly outfitted and mysteriously abandoned ship. Roberto quickly settles into an indulgent routine of writing highly romanticized love letters and imbibing large quantities of aqua vitae, but he regains clarity of mind just often enough to realize that he isn't alone after all. His elusive shipmate turns out to be Father Caspar, a brilliant man who has unlocked the very secrets of time and distance that Roberto was supposed to secure. As Roberto and Caspar conduct experiments and attempt to reach a nearby island, we learn the story of Roberto's life, a captivating tale that features delightfully blasphemous intellectuals and amusing speculation on the absurdity of the Thirty Years' War and the consequences of the rise of scientific thought in a world dominated by politicized religion. After the somewhat heavy-handed Foucault's Pendulum (1989), Eco has returned to the sort of erudite humor, suspense, stimulating philosophy, and cunning wordplay that made The Name of the Rose (1983) so popular. And, once again, translator William Weaver has done a superb job. Donna Seaman
Review
PRAISE FOR THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE
"As wonderfully exotic as only Eco can contrive . . . An astonishing intellectual journey."--San Francisco Chronicle
"A masterpiece . . . intellectually stimulating and dramatically intriguing."--Chicago Tribune
From the Back Cover
"A profound and ingenious story artfully told . . . Renaissance battles, love poems, and sea journeys in the age of exploration." --The New York Times Book Review
Roberto della Griva is an Italian nobleman living in 1643. His mission is to travel the South Pacific and discover the means by which navigators can understand the mystery of longitude. After a violent storm, however, Roberto finds himself shipwrecked--on a ship. Swept from the Amaryllis, he has managed to pull himself aboard the Daphne, anchored in the bay of a beautiful island. The ship is fully provisioned, but the crew is missing.
As Roberto explores the different cabinets in the hold, he remembers chapters from his youth: Ferrante, his imaginary evil brother; the siege of Casale, that meaningless chess move in the Thirty Years' War in which he lost his father; and the lessons given him on fencing, blasphemy, and the writing of love letters. The Island of the Day Before is a fascinating, lyrical tale about a young dreamer's search for love and meaning.
"A masterpiece . . . intellectually stimulating and dramatically intriguing." --Chicago Tribune
"A story both thought provoking and surprisingly humorous." USA Today
"Umberto Eco . . . is the last of the great 20th century polymathic fabulists in the tradition of Joyce and Nabokov and Borges." The Wall Street Journal
UMBERTO ECO is a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna and the bestselling author of numerous novels and collections of essays. He lives in Milan.
Translated from the Italian by William Weaver
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About the Author
Umberto Eco is professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna.
