This truly fabulous novel is structured around a castaway named Roberto, who finds himself aboard an abandoned ship just out of reach of an island near what is now the International Date Line, in the age of burgeoning science and technology of the seventeenth century. While exploring this mysterious vessel, Roberto recalls events from his life, including ladies he has courted in the desperate Shakespearean fashion, philosophical discussions that became duels, encounters with the all-powerful Church and their dissidents, and the apparent intrusion of an imagined jealous bastard brother. Weaving together threads resembling Borges short stories, peopling them with historical figures and memorable characters, taking opportunities to expound perennial philosophical questions, presenting the clash of Aristotelian crystal spheres and Epicurean voids at the birth of modern science, and plumbing the depths of human imagination, Eco has crafted a masterpiece. The prose, translated from Italian by William Weaver, is just beautiful. One of the best books I've read.