Numero Zero is the feverish and delightfully readable tale of a ghostwriter in Milan whose work pulls him into an underworld of media politics and murderous conspiracies (involving the cadaver of Mussolini"s double, naturally.) This novel is vintage Eco-corrupt newspapers, clandestine plots, imaginary histories-and will appeal to his many readers and earn him legions of new ones. Umberto Eco is the 83-year-old Italian novelist best known for the international bestseller The Name of the Rose, published in 1980. The murder mystery set in a 14th-century monastery was made into a film starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater. His other books include several works of literary criticism and the bestselling novels Foucault"s Pendulum, Baudolino, and his most recent, The Prague Cemetery.