I see Umberto Eco has recently published his sixth novel, Il Cimitero di Praga, and although my Italian is weaker than my reading comprehension of Spanish or Portuguese, it is good enough that I should be able to understand most, if not everything, that I read. Interesting cover art as well; reminded of Zafón's covers for some reason. Uncertain, but I think the English translation will be out in the next 1-2 years.
Want?
And as a bonus, here's the Spanish cover art for the book. Very tempted to order it in both languages as an early Christmas gift to myself.
Posts
7 comments:
yes want!!! but I shall need it in English. I is lingustically ignorant.
The Cemetery of Prague? What is "Praga?" I'm fluent in Spanish which is decently close to Italian, but I am only guessing at "Praga," need more context!
Will Christian Slater be starring in the movie adaptation?
Great to know - will take a look.
I am now practicing my Italian reading skills on Altai by Wu Ming (the famous Italian collective behind the awesome Q and the pretty good Manituana)
Altai is a semi-sequel to Q and is available free online in Italian; starts with a secret apostate Jew who has been a jew-hater and Venetian inquisitor, now trapped in his web (by his sort of girlfriend prostitute who denounces him as circumcised) and forced to try and escape to the Sultan's court
Q is free online in English too and was a huge bestseller about Luther, Anabaptism and more, one of the best 'revolutionary" novels I've read, maybe the best since the famous Spartacus by H. Fast
Hurrah, A new Eco is always worth a want.
I didn't know he had written a new novel, but a quick google search gave me the following information (rough translation from dutch:
The historical novel is called Il cimitero di Praga (The Cemetery of Prague) en is set in the nineteenth century. The book revolves around secret plots, attacks and conspiracies that defined the century. According to the publisher, the novel ‘will give a disturbing insight on the history and politics of Europe in those days”. The settting (19th century Prague) makes that some people think the Golem and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion will make an appearance. Prague’s most famous cemetery is the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov. This cemetery is also the resting place of Rabbi Löw, the creator of the legend of the Golem.
The source can be found when my name is clicked.
I have it, so I can tell some more.
I'm not sure if this is readable/interesting for a big public, it's very dense in history and specific detail. All characters in the book are historical figures and what happens is what happened historically. The only narrative "invention" is about the main character, who's the son of a mysterious figure that also belongs to history, but only for his name.
Then he weaves the historical plot ad chain of events around this character, who's a conspirator and deeply hates Jews) and makes him the center of many important events. In particular dealing with the creation of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (look it up on the Wikipedia) that will then be used even by Hitler.
So it's a book about the diary written by this hateful character that begins by badmouthing French, Italians and Germans ("I have no prejudices"), and is caught in this big conspiracy against Jews. So putting a wicked, perverse and non-idealized light on the events of European history.
Looking forward for it, but will probably wait for the portuguese version, scheduled for March 2011.
The covers are indeed wonderful. Besides Zafon they remind me of China Mieville's "The City & The City" cover of the paperback edition released by Pan Macmillan.
It sounds like an interesting novel too and I would certainly like to learn more about Captain Simonini and his encounters and views of XIXth century history.
Post a Comment