Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose

I think Eco managed to show how the middle ages really felt like. Just an example: it is here that it really may strike us that in those times Europe wasn't divided along nations, as we are inclined to think reading our history books, it was rather a real union-type region. Latin connoisseurs walked around Europe, the language of science was common, so "everybody" knew "everybody". The commoners instead lived as they could, and didn't see further than their own nose.

This said, it's just an extra that Eco doesn't only know things and read up on what he wants to say, but he also knows how to write and how to build a story. I don't know the exact quote, but he said that he wanted to kill a priest so he wrote The Name of the Rose.:)

Topic: crime in the middle ages, a heretically cunning scientist-priest.

Size: neither short, nor an easy-read, but each page is worth it!