The title of the last novel by the Italian writer and semiologist Umberto Eco (1932–2016), published in 2015, before his death, is of course an expression for the newspaper issue that is created in a newspaper editorial office on a computer and then only a few test copies are printed, which then do not go into regular distribution and sale. Colonna, the main character of the novel, is a depressed and unpromising writer who finally receives an offer that is really impossible to refuse – he is supposed to collaborate on a new newspaper that will be financed by a rich man and in writing a book about its creation. What is particularly intriguing is that the newspaper is said to cause appropriate political pressure and turmoil with its zero issues alone. Colonna quickly gets to know the rest of the team and they soon get to work. Eco injects the entire process of creating individual columns and content into a contemporary social satire, with which he presents the modern media landscape as a scene of controversial interests and legalities. At first, it seems that the writer has engaged in delving into contemporary reality with his literary work, but then the story is taken over by his collaborator Braggadocio with his conspiracy theory regarding Mussolini's death. He claims that the man who was killed towards the end of April 1945 was actually his double... The last work of the great Italian, with which he decided to stir the reader's imagination one last time.
(Samo Rugelj; Bukla 123-124)
(Samo Rugelj; Bukla 123-124)