Hombre de pocas palabras, misógino y glotón impenitente, el capitán se inspira en los folletines de Dumas y Sue para dar fe de complots inexistentes, fomentar intrigas o difamar a las grandes figuras de la política europea. Caballero sin escrúpulos, Simonini trabaja al servicio del mejor postor: si antes fue el gobierno italiano quien pagó por sus imposturas, luego llegaron los encargos de Francia y Prusia, e incluso Hitler acabaría aprovechándose de sus malvados oficios...

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Thirty years after publishing of The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco returns with this novel to ensure us that in literature and in life, nothing is what it seems, and nobody is who they say they are.
 
Paris, 1897. A man writes sitting at a table in a room crammed with furniture: it is Captain Simonini, a Piedmontese man living in the French capital, who since a young age has been fully devoted to the noble art of creating false documents.
 
Man of few words, a misogynist, and an unapologetic overeater, the captain would get inspiration from Dumas and Sue's stories to show nonexistent plots, to encourage conspiracies, or to defame the great figures of European politics. An unscrupulous gentleman, Simonini worked for the highest bidder: at first it was the Italian government who paid for his deceptions, then he was commissioned by France and Prussia, and even Hitler took advantage of their evil scams.
 
"A whirlwind tour of conspiracy and political intrigue...this dark tale is delightfully embellished with sophisticated and playful commentary on, among other things, Freud, metafiction, and the challenges of historiography." —Booklist
 
"Intriguing, hilarious....a tale by a master." —Publishers Weekly boxed review
 
"He's got a humdinger in this new high-level whodunit...a perplexing, multilayered, attention-holding mystery." —Kirkus, starred