A labyrinthine medieval murder mystery set in an Italian monastery with a forbidden library at its heart. Eco was a semiotician, and the novel is drunk on signs, symbols, and the dangerous power of books. The Franciscan detective William of Baskerville navigates theological disputes, monastic politics, and a series of deaths that seem to follow the pattern of the Apocalypse. Dense with medieval lore yet propulsive as any thriller. The library itself becomes a character, a maze designed to protect knowledge by making it impossible to find.