[[quoteright:261:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mysterious_flame_of_queen_loana_7905.jpg]]
A novel by Creator/UmbertoEco.

Yambo Bodoni has a problem. After suffering a stroke, he lost his episodic memory. Now he can't remember his name, family, or any aspects of his life. Thanks to a lifetime of work as an antiquarian book dealer in Milan, however, he ''can'' recall anything he's ever read. In order to rediscover his lost past, Yambo heads to his childhood hometown of Solara. As he pores through old newspapers, comics, and magazines, Yambo - and the reader - get glimpses into the often tragic and bittersweet reality of a boy coming of age in Italy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

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!!This book provides examples of:

* AbortedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler:After nursing his schoolboy crush on Lila for weeks, Yambo ''finally'' musters enough nerve to confess everything. He waits for her to come home from school, mentally going over exactly what he's going to say. When Lila arrives, he can barely stutter out a single sentence of small talk before awkwardly leaving.]]
* ActionSurvivor: Yambo, due to [[spoiler:helping the Cossacks narrowly escape the Germans.]]
* AdultsAreUseless: Young Yambo ''thinks'' this just before [[spoiler:he leads the Cossacks through the Gorge.]] It's instantly subverted once reality bites.
* AmbiguousEnding: ''[[spoiler: Why is the sun turning black?]]''
* AmnesiacHero: Yambo. The novel even starts out with him at the hospital awkwardly trying to figure out his name.
* AmnesiacLover: Much to the chagrin of Yambo's wife Paola, who has to provide him a brief summary of his life.
* AmnesiacsAreInnocent: Played with. Yambo wonders if he was romantically interested in his assistant, only to discover she's already taken.
* [[{{UsefulNotes/Atheism}} Atheism]]: After years of a Catholic upbringing, a teenaged Yambo has a revelation as he watches a soccer match with his father. He can't quite explain it other than "God does not exist." He [[{{Confessional}} confesses]] shortly afterward and, according to Paola, he never went to any soccer matches as an adult.
--> ''I must have had it in my head, from that day on, that going to a match meant losing my soul.''
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Gragnola wears a lancet as a way to kill himself in case he gets captured, and that's exactly what happens.]]
* TheBigGuy: Gigio was this for Yambo's grandpa's group. When a wagon fell into a ditch, he hauled it out single-handedly.
* {{Bookworm}}: Yambo, before and after his amnesia.
* CanNotSpitItOut: Yambo waxes poetic in his internal monologues about Lila. Actually saying something out loud, on the other hand...
* ChekhovsSkill: Yambo's ability to climb the Gorge.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Yambo ''wishes'' he had this with his classmate Lila Saba. [[spoiler: It never happens.]]
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Yambo thinks he's prepared to [[spoiler: go on dangerous adventure through the Gorge to escape the Germans,]] but he quickly changes his tune when things get bloody.
* ChildSoldiers: Not quite. [[spoiler: Yambo uses his knowledge of the Gorge to help the Cossacks escape the Germans and narrowly avoids being shot, but he never gets involved in the fighting.]]
* ComingOfAgeStory: We get to see Yambo's via lengthy flashbacks.
* CongruentMemory: Yambo attempts to reclaim his past by reading things associated with it.
* CynicalMentor: Gragnola is already bitter by the time Yambo gets to know him.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: The result of [[spoiler: Lila, Yambo's first boyhood crush. Even worse, she barely knew him and ''died'' shortly after they last saw each other.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: Sheltering UsefulNotes/WorldWarII deserters? Your town gets burned to the ground.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Yambo's reintroduction to his assistant Sibilla quickly devolves into this. Going by Paola's explanation, Yambo hasn't been a faithful husband. Judging by his [[spoiler: infatuation with his childhood classmate]], it's nothing new.
* DoomedHometown: Solara ''narrowly'' averts this during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thanks to Yambo's help and [[spoiler: Gragnola's sacrifice.]]
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Yambo ''never'' sees Lila's face, isn't sure what memories are real, and may be ''dying'' in the last third of the book. It's possible that everything after the moment he finds Shakespeare's First Folio is the [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes visions of his life]] before his death.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Gragnola slices his throat to avoid a FateWorseThanDeath.]]
* EncyclopaedicKnowledge: Going by the sheer amount of references, Yambo certainly qualifies.
* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler: Gragnola let his guard down once he got the Cossacks escorted out of town. It doesn't end well.]]
* FromBadToWorse: Yambo and Gragnola's IndyPloy [[CrazyEnoughToWork seems dangerous but doable]]… until everything quickly goes south when they realize the pursuing Germans brought ''dogs'' to track them through the fog. [[spoiler: Then the Cossacks get disoriented. Then they barely manage to capture two Germans and have to haul them around to prevent being discovered. ''Then'' one of the [[FinaglesLaw Germans drops his helmet, giving the dogs a scent to pursue.]] ''Then'' Gragnola and the Cossacks have to shove the captured Germans down the Gorge to their deaths in order to throw the pursuers off the trail.]] Yambo, who started the plan [[WrongGenreSavvy thinking it was like a comic book]] and believing AdultsAreUseless, ends up being sent back home, terrified and traumatized.
* GainaxEnding: The last forty pages or so are Yambo having a [[InnerMonologue stream of consciousness-style monologue]] in which he wonders whether he's really been dreaming the whole book, dreaming he's in a dream, it he's a BrainInAJar, etc. He then [[spoiler: prays to Queen Loana in an attempt to see Lila's face, resulting in several illustrated visions of the fictional characters and people from his childhood, culminating with him appearing at Lila's foyer in the past, waiting for her to come home from school so he can confess his love. Before he can see her face, however, the sun turns black and the novel ends.]]
* GeniusBookClub: His work as an antiquarian book dealer.
* GenreSavvy: Yambo's grandfather and Gragnola know exactly what kind of situations they're thrown into. [[spoiler: It only works for a while for the latter.]]
* GrowingUpSucks: Especially when dealing with the fallout of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* HarmfulToMinors: [[spoiler: Undertaking a mission that meant facing certain death at the hands of the Germans, ''and'' knowing his would-be mentor killed some of them in cold blood, ''and'' finding out said mentor killed himself]] didn't do a lot of good for Yambo's childhood.
* HopelessSuitor: Yambo for Lila. He even lampshades it by comparing it to ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac''.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Sibella has been running the book dealership since Yambo lost his memory.
* IdentityAmnesia: Aside from his Bookworm tendencies, anyway.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Gragnola [[spoiler: kills two German captives in order to throw off their pursuers and get across the Gorge safely.]]
* IndyPloy:
** Yambo's grandpa manages to hide a group of deserters by building a brick wall sealing them inside the chapel.
** The entire [[spoiler: escape from Solara]] devolves into this, with tragic results.
* InformedJudaism: Young Yambo met a man named Signor Ferrara. Yambo was too young to know anything about the significance of Jewish people in the years leading up to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (his elders simply told him to keep quiet about it), and [[InnocentInaccurate doesn't think twice when Ferrara and his friends disappear one day]]. It's not until after the war that he [[POWCamp finds out.]]
--> ''By war's end I had learned a great deal, not only how babies are born, but also how Jews die.''
* InnocenceLost: Yambo is never the same after [[spoiler: the encounter with the Germans.]]
* InSeriesNickname: Yambo's full name is actually Giambattista Bodoni, which is a shout out to the RealLife [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Bodoni typographer Giambattista Bodoni.]]
* JustAKid: Completely justified during [[spoiler: the Cossacks' escape from Solara.]] The young Yambo does ''not'' deal with [[spoiler: the nearly botched escape, the deaths of two Germans, and Gragnola's suicide]] well.
* KnightInSourArmor: Gragnola spends a lot of time philosophizing over Italy's condition in wartime and the likelihood of GodIsEvil. He's also the one who [[spoiler: volunteers to get the Cossacks out of Solara after Yambo guides them through the Gorge.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Yambo can only remember things he's read, resulting in dialogue crammed with quotes and references.
* LossOfIdentity: Played depressingly straight. Yambo quickly realizes that he can't even recognize his family.
* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler: Lila Saba, Yambo's first love.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: Yambo goes into particularly detailed explanation of how to get the most money out of a client selling a book collection.
* MayDecemberRomance: Upon being reintroduced to his assistant Sibilla, Yambo silently muses if they had an affair. He gets proven wrong shortly after.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler: Gragnola.]]
* MrExposition: Gragnola has a lot of religious and political discourse with Yambo.
* NervesOfSteel: Yambo ''thinks'' he has them when [[spoiler: he decides to help the Cossacks cross the Gorge]]. He's proven wrong shortly after.
* NeverForgottenSkill: Yambo still knows how to spot valuable texts among old collections - [[MoneyDearBoy and how to get them at the best prices.]]
* NoEscapeButDown: Gigio has to resort to this when [[spoiler: the Fascists are distracted by Gragnola's suicide.]]
* OldRetainer: Amalia is the only one left at Yambo's childhood home, and she [[TellMeAboutMyFather shares a few anecdotes]] about his past.
* OminousFog: The Gorge becomes nearly impossible to navigate at night because it's too foggy. [[spoiler: Yambo manages to guide the Cossacks through, at the cost of the lives of two Germans.]]
* {{Omniglot}}: Yambo, thanks to years of book dealing.
* OneLastFieldTrip: Yambo's trip back to Solara to rediscover himself.
* PlayingCyrano: Yambo blatantly uses it as a metaphor for his infatuation with Lila. They even watch ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'' at one point.
* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Lila died decades ago]], but Yambo doesn't remember it.
* ThePrankster:
** Young Yambo and his friends show shades of this in their attempt to prank the boys from the neighboring town.
** Sibilla pulls one off by putting a highly valuable - but fake - entry into Yambo's sale inventory.
* PreacherMan: Don Renato.
* PropagandaMachine: Some of the old documents Yambo finds are from Fascist Italy. He muses over how it [[BlindObedience affected his childhood]] and remembers wanting to be a ''ballila''.
* ProperlyParanoid: Gragnola.
* PuppyLove: Yambo falls hard for [[spoiler: Lila Saba. It's entirely one-sided.]]
* QuestForIdentity: Essentially the premise of the story.
* ReferenceOverdosed: To the point that there's an ''entire wiki'' on just the shout outs.
* RepressedMemories: Mostly revolving around Yambo's childhood in Italy amidst UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* {{Revenge}}: Merlo forced Yambo's grandpa to drink castor oil and destroyed his newspaper business. Yambo's grandpa returns the favor and more twenty one years later.
* SelfDeprecation: Yambo doesn't think highly of the poetry he wrote as a teenager.
* SeriousBusiness: Yambo and his friends learn how to scale a near-impassible gorge just to prank the other kids. [[spoiler: It becomes ''much'' more serious later on.]]
* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: Yambo's infatuation with Lila Saba. She died shortly after they last saw each other decades ago.]]
* SherlockScan: Yambo can figure out the most valuable books in your collection with just a glance.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: Essentially what [[spoiler: Yambo's obsession with Lila Saba, if not the ''entire novel'']] ends up being.
* ShoutOut: Way, ''way'' too many to list here. [[http://eco.ids-mannheim.de/wiki/The_Mysterious_Flame_of_Queen_Loana Another wiki has been working on it]] since the book's release, and it's ''still'' incomplete.
* ShownTheirWork: Creator/UmbertoEco doesn't just describe the newspapers and comics Yambo finds; he puts their images alongside the text.
* SkewedPriorities:
** Young Yambo ''really'' wanted his childhood crush to notice him, to the point of getting obsessed with the school play and ignoring his studies.
** Want to sneak up and prank the boys from the next town over? Try learning how to climb (and nearly dying in the attempt) a nearly impassible Gorge.
* TheSmartGuy: Yambo. Judging by his lengthy dialogues, Gragnola was one as well.
* SpeaksInShoutOuts: Given how he can only remember things he's read, Yambo's got a bit of this going on.
* StalkingIsLove: Yambo becomes increasingly obsessed with Lila throughout the school year, culminating with him waiting for her to come home from class so he can finally confess his love. [[spoiler: Not only does he not confess, he ''barely'' makes a sentence of small talk before retreating. Even worse, Lila barely even knows Yambo, and is implied to be dating a college boy!]]
* SurvivorGuilt: Yambo has it after [[spoiler: he finds out Gragnola died.]] The fact that he was just a kid at the time makes it even worse.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Gragnola escorts the Cossacks to safety and kills himself before he could be interrogated. As a result, his Fascist captors don't report the capture, thus sparing Solara from being burned to the ground.]]
-->''He had screwed them all: Fascists, Germans, and God in a single stroke.''
* TitleDrop: ''The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana'' is the name of an old comic book Yambo finds in his childhood home.
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Yambo ''hopes'' this is the case with him and Lila, but the book ends before he sees her again.]]
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: The novel begins with Yambo recovering from a stroke.
* UncertainDoom: Yambo returns to Solara in an attempt to regain his memory. [[spoiler: He fails, ends up ''even more'' confused, and might be dying in the last third of the book.]]
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Creator/UmbertoEco outdid himself on this one. The amnesiac protagonist introducing himself as [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Arthur Gordon Pym]] is just the tip of the iceberg. Decent knowledge of classic literature, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and pop culture are particularly useful. The sheer variety and obscurity of subjects referenced requires ''its own wiki'' to keep track of it all.
* WarIsHell: And Yambo only got a small taste of it as a child.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pretty much ''everything'' from the first section of the story.
* WomenAreWiser: Paola's interactions with Yambo have shades of this.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Young Yambo ''thinks'' he's a kid hero helping the bumbling adults [[spoiler: escape the Germans via the Gorge.]] His confidence doesn't last long, unfortunately.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Due to the volatile political circumstances near the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the townspeople in Solara have to [[spoiler: harbor a group of Cossack deserters and protect them from Germans and Fascists, the very groups most sided with years before.]]

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''When you are on the dancefloor, there is nothing to do but dance.''
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