The Island of the Day Before - Umberto Eco

one sentence summary:
A shipwrecked young man seeks shelter aboard an abandoned ship and with no hope of escape contemplates life.

review:
I enjoyed reading this when I was in my late teens, I do however warn that even I had to have a dictionary on hand while reading it and I have a rather extensive vocabulary. At the time I was questioning everything about life and thus related well to the protagonist, Roberto, who can see the island, and could swim to it and salvation if only he could swim. I viewed this as a parable for life, how we can see our futures, and how to save ourselves from any situation but can't always get there on our own. I also enjoyed Eco's look at religion and extensive historical knowledge (as I always do).   Roberto spends his days reflecting on his life and through these reflections Eco touches on every subject from religion to love to science and everything in between in his typical introspective fashion. Also Eco has this amazing ability to make me forget that he did not in fact write during the era that his novels are set in and this is no exception to that rule. I recommend this to anyone who isn't scared of reading with a dictionary in one hand and the book in the other.
7/10

memorable quotes:
"To survive, you must tell stories." 

"It is necessary to meditate early, and often, on the art of dying to succeed later in doing it properly just once."

"the first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion, which would have us afraid of the most natural thing in the world, which is death; and would have us hate the one beautiful thing destiny has given us, which is life." 

if you enjoyed this I recommend:
The Once and Future king - T. H. White
the other writing of Umberto Eco