“I'd lost all faith in everything, except for the certainty that there's always someone behind our backs waiting to deceive us.”

Italian semiotician and novelist of the late 20th century, Eco was a scholar of medieval literature and a cultural critic whose work bridged academia and fiction. He’s best known for *The Name of the Rose*, a historical mystery that blends philosophy and medieval intrigue, and for his essays on semiotics, media, and the nature of signs. His later novels, like *Foucault’s Pendulum*, explore conspiracy, knowledge, and the limits of interpretation.