Baudolino

24 hrs. 39 min.

Language Russian

Author Umberto Eco

Narrator Yury Grigoryev

Description

As in “The Name of the Rose,” the Middle Ages and the modern world echo and reflect each other here. As in “The Name of the Rose,” “Baudolino” is a historical novel with detective elements. The plot traces back to Conan Doyle’s “Six Napoleons,” with mythical stories added about the Volhvotsar’s, the Shroud of Turin, and the search for the Grail. The heroes wander through fictional kingdoms and fight armies of fantastic creatures, and everything culminates in a double thriller-style twist.

Journalists wrote right away: “Baudolino is Eco’s self-portrait.” Tireless storyteller, bibliophile, celebrity, and a citizen of the world—and at the same time, a connoisseur, sometimes even a participant in the rough, meat-eating, half-peasant life of an Italian provincial town. Eco and his hero are flesh of the flesh of their native town of Alessandria in Piedmont.

It is precisely this Alessandria—the city being born before the reader’s eyes—that Eco portrays in the novel, despite its raw simplicity, as a near-sacred place, a haven of earthly paradise, a dwelling for the Grail.

Published by agreement with the literary agency ELKOST Intl.