Inventing the Enemy

Underscores the writer s profound erudition, lively wit, and passion for ideas of all shapes and sizes . . . Eco s pleasure in such explorations is obvious and contagious. Booklist

Inventing the Enemy covers a wide range of topics on which Eco has written and lectured over the past ten years: from a disquisition on the theme that runs through his recent novel The Prague Cemetery every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn t have one, must invent it to a discussion of ideas that have inspired his earlier novels, taking us on an exploration of lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world; from indignant reviews of James Joyce s Ulysses by fascist journalists of the 1920s and 1930s, to an examination of Saint Thomas Aquinas s notions about the soul of an unborn child, to censorship and violence and WikiLeaks.
These are essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsession by one of the world s most esteemed scholars and critically acclaimed, best-selling novelists.

True wit and wisdom coexist with fierce scholarship inside Umberto Eco, a writer who actually knows a thing or two about being truly human. Buffalo News
"Thought provoking . . . nuanced . . . the collection amply shows off Eco's sophisticated, agile mind." Publishers Weekly
[AU PHOTO] UMBERTO ECO is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the best-selling novels The Prague Cemetery, The Name of the Rose, and Foucault s Pendulum and many 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 lives in Milan.

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