The Name of the Rose

A bestseller in Italy, France, and Germany, the winner of Italy's two most prestigious literary prizes and the French award for best foreign work - a masterful tale set against the turbulence of medieval Italy. The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. His delicate mission is suddeny overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and night of apocalyptic terror. The body of one monk is found in a cask of pigs' blood, another is floating in a bathhouse, still another is crushed at the foot of a cliff. Brother William turns detective, and a uniquely deft one at that. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon-all sharpened to a glistening edge by his wry hu,mor and ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where "the most interesting things happen at night."