A conversation curated by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac

This is Not the End of the Book

A storming book. The next best thing to sitting in Umberto Eco's living room after dinner;  a dream collection of lucid and fascinating discussions

Hurrah for philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco and playwright and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, who have come together to praise the medium... Fans of Eco and Carrière will be charmed

An entertainingly free-range dialogue about writing past, present and future

The dialogue between these two superbrains is freakishly compelling and covers everything from papyrus scrolls to e-readers... Never fails to be enlightening and engaging... Hooray for this brilliant book

This book is a reminder that the satisfaction of working through even a relatively short book comes in part through confronting digressions, dead ends and distractions: the hallmark of conversation between friends, not of Internet speed-reading

As the conversation blossoms, the pair wander blissfully off topic into wider philosophical speculation about the nature of culture, for instance or humanity's curious relationship with past, present and future.  And along the way there are plenty of pleasant diversions and anecdotes, taking in such diverse subject matter as Italian cinema forgotten French baroque poets, and the place of philosophy in contemporary European education systems.  All this, naturally, informed by their love of books

They're great thinkers and talkers, with a lifetime of book-loving behind them, the pair digress into fascinating areas, discussing how new media give rise to their own languages, how we came to have the canon of great literature we do now and the effect that ephemerality, memory, religion and even fakery have had on the world of books

A lively exchange of views… it’s fun to eavesdrop on their conversation

Jean-Claude Carrière is a writer, playwright and screenwriter, who recently collaborated with Michael Haneke on his award-winning film The White Ribbon. He has worked with many of the twentieth century's great directors including Peter Brook, Milos Forman, Buñuel and Jean-Luc Godard, and is the author of Please Mr Einstein. 
 
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) wrote fiction, literary criticism and philosophy. His first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a major international bestseller. His other works include Foucault's Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Prague Cemetery and Numero Zero along with many brilliant collections of essays. 
 
Jean-Philippe de Tonnac is a writer and editor. His interviews with Umberto Eco, Jean-Claude Carrière and Stephen Jay Gould were published in the book Conversations About the End of Time. He is also the editor of several collections of essays, not yet translated into English, which include A Universal Dictionary of Bread andAn Encyclopaedia of Knowledge and Belief.

'The book is like the spoon: once invented, it cannot be bettered' - Umberto Eco. 
 
These days it is impossible to get away from discussions of whether the book will survive the digital revolution. Blogs, tweets and newspaper articles on the subject appear daily, many of them repetitive, most of them admitting ignorance of the future. Amidst the twittering, the thoughts of Jean-Claude Carrière and Umberto Eco come as a breath of fresh air. 
 
This thought-provoking book takes the form of a conversation in which Carrière and Eco discuss everything from how to define the first book to what is happening to knowledge now that infinite amounts of information are available at the click of a mouse. 
 
En route there are delightful digressions into personal anecdote. We find out about Eco's first computer and the book Carrière is most sad to have sold. And while, as Carrière says, the one certain thing about the future is that it is unpredictable, it is clear from this conversation that, in some form or other, the book will survive.

Jean-Claude Carrière

John Brownjohn

A thought-provoking introduction to Einstein and quantum theory

Carrière's humane sensibility makes him the ideal man to humanise Einstein

Since the 1960s, Carrière has had his finger on the pulse of Europe's imagination...In Carrière's story...undecidability and doubt have leached out of science and into ethics

[A] coruscating, yet gently whimsical, tour ...Carriére...has an impeccable pedigree in science publishing...There are some sharp incidental pleasures and some witty reflections to be enjoyed

A young woman enters a building in a nameless contemporary European city. She walks into a waiting room where a dozen other people, with briefcases or sheaves of documents, are gathered. Ushered into a large office, she meets Albert Einstein, who is engaged in trying to figure out the equation that explains the universe. He is charmed by her, and agrees to answer her questions. 
 
Einstein and the young woman begin discussing the concepts of time and space. He explains his theories about relativity and his responsibility in the creation of nuclear weapons. Einstein also talks about the problem of being famous, about his life in Nazi Germany and how his dreams of worldwide peace were shattered. He appears bright, witty, hugely sympathetic, but also tormented and dreamy.

Jean-Claude Carrière

Praise for Please, Mr Einstein

A thought-provoking introduction to Einstein and quantum theory

Carrière's humane sensibility makes him the ideal man to humanise Einstein

Since the 1960s, Carrière has had his finger on the pulse of Europe's imagination...In Carrière's story...undecidability and doubt have leached out of science and into ethics

A thought-provoking introduction to Einstein and quantum theory

Carrière's humane sensibility makes him the ideal man to humanise Einstein

Since the 1960s, Carrière has had his finger on the pulse of Europe's imagination...In Carrière's story...undecidability and doubt have leached out of science and into ethics

A thought-provoking introduction to Einstein and quantum theory

Carrière's humane sensibility makes him the ideal man to humanise Einstein

Since the 1960s, Carrière has had his finger on the pulse of Europe's imagination...In Carrière's story...undecidability and doubt have leached out of science and into ethics

Books by Jean-Claude Carrière

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter