Numero zero

By Umberto Eco

Subjects: Mystery, Fiction, alternative history, Political satire, Ghostwriters, FICTION / Satire, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / International Crime & Mystery, Alternative histories (Fiction), Novela, Chantaje, Literature, Corrupt practices, Diarios, Extortion, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical, Editores financieros, FICTION / Literary, Journalistes, Conspiraciones, Fiction, political, Italy, fiction, Verdad y mentira, Romans, nouvelles, Conspiracies, Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), Literary, Social satire, Fiction, satire, Fiction, Italian Social satire, Newspaper publishing, Assassination, Publishers and publishing, Man-woman relationships, FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological, Newspapers, Presse satirique, Truthfulness and falsehood, Modern Civilization, Italian Political satire, Autores, Ficción, Journalism, Satire, Relaciones hombre-mujer

Description: "A novel about the murky world of media politics, conspiracy, and murder."-- 1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured and shot by local partisans. The precise circumstances of Il Duce's death remain controversial. 1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed hack writer, is offered a fee he can't resist to ghostwrite a book. His subject: a fledgling newspaper, which happens to be financed by a powerful media magnate. As Colonna gets to know the team, he learns of the editor's paranoid theory that Mussolini's corpse was a body double and part of a wider Fascist plot. It's the scoop the newspaper desperately needs, The evidence? He's working on it. It's all here: media hoaxes, Mafiosi, the CIA, the Pentagon, blackmail, love, gossip, and murder. A clash of forces that have shaped Italy since World War II--from Mussolini to Berlusconi. --From book jacket.