The Name of the Rose (Helen and Kurt Wolff Books) (1983)

A Benedictine abbey in 1327 becomes a place of deaths, disputation and contested access to knowledge. Eco makes reading, copying, storing and controlling books central to both the institution and the investigation. Choose it if the rules governing a workplace interest you as much as the solution. The theological and intellectual passages require patience. William Weaver’s English translation carries a novel that combines historical reconstruction with a deliberately literary detective game.