Very sad news is emerging from multiple sources that acclaimed Italian author and philosopher Umberto Eco has passed away at age 84. Details on his passing have yet to be released.
Eco was known for his incredible novels, both fiction and non-fiction, which melded deep historical, philosophical, and religious knowledge with thrilling stories. His first novel “Il nome della rosa” (The Name of the Rose) came out in 1983 and was adapted into a film with Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Ron Perlman, and Christian Slater. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it as it’s absolutely wonderful and the book is nothing short of a masterpiece. Eco’s last novel was “Numero Zero”, which came out in January of last year (an English translation was released in November).
His nonfiction works showed a man who held a great passion and deep interest not only in preserving history but also in analyzing it so as to understand who we are, where we came from, and where we might be going.
The world has lost a truly great mind. We send our condolences to his friends and family.