If you have already read his more famous books, and enjoy his writing, you will wonder why this one is not considered among Umberto Eco’s most important.  He does not even mention it in one of the best interviews he has granted in the English language.

Strange. My being in India now is at least in part due to this book. For the work we do it is an illuminating text, in an Eco-intuitive, not everything is as it seems kind of way. If I made a list of top 10 choices for the one book to take on one of those desert island strandings, this would be on it.