Book summary

A veteran of the Thirty Years War, Roberto della Griva is shipwrecked in the South Seas on a secret mission to the Antipodes. Roberto is saved by the appearance of an abandoned ship, the Daphne, which has enough stores to sustain him. The time aboard the Daphne affords Roberto opportunity to reflect. As he looks back on his loves and education, he is haunted by his doppelganger, whom he has suspected of being on board the ship. The book features the philosophical and scientific digressions and musings which are familiar to the readers of Eco's other novels.

Media reviews

"His novel pays tribute to the engaging jumble of fact and fancy found in the encyclopedic treatises of the time. The rewards the reader draws from such works are quirky and unexpected--much like the upside-down pleasures of life in Eco's 'Antipodes'."