![]() Historical comedy is a challenge, but this madcap satire on 16th-century relic collecting pulls it off. The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley (Simon & Schuster, $16). I’ve had similar experiences inside many Italian churches, sensing the wonder of the past giving way to the disappointment of the future. Poetic and tender, it contains a stunning scene of two lovers hoisted into a Renaissance chapel to view frescoes by candlelight. Ondaatje’s prize-winning novel is set in northern Italy between V-E Day and the bombing of Hiroshima. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (Vintage, $16). ![]() His search takes us deep inside a labyrinthine library and the medieval mind, and the scholastic chutzpah of his answer takes your breath away. In this brilliant historical whodunit, a Sherlock Holmes of a 14th-century monk investigates a set of gruesome murders in an isolated monastery. ![]() The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (Mariner, $16). ![]()
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