"The Last Secret": Dan Brown's new novel set in Prague arrives in Argentina tomorrow.
Americanwriter Dan Brown 's new novel, The Last Secret , was launched Tuesday in Prague , the mystical "city of a hundred spires" where the action-packed, intriguing, and enigmatic plot unfolds, starring the celebrated symbology professor Robert Langdon . The 800-plus-page book, which marks Brown's return eight years after his last work, Inception , will arrive in Argentina tomorrow, Wednesday.
Long lines at Prague's Town Hall Square to get the first copies of Dan Brown's latest work. EFE/Raúl Bobé
The author described the story as "the most ambitious and intricately plotted novel I've written to date."
The book is being released simultaneously this Tuesday in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, among other countries . Fans in other countries, such as Spain and Argentina, will have to wait a day or two to purchase it.
This is the sixth volume of adventures featuring the hero Robert Langdon , a specialist in esoteric symbols. This time, the story is set in Prague and revolves around an "explosive essay on the nature of human consciousness that could transform centuries of established beliefs," according to French editor JC Lattès.
A long queue of people , which began to form the day before around the old town hall in the Czech capital, waited all night, until 7:00 a.m. local time (5:00 a.m. GMT) today, to buy their copy , amid the curiosity of the few tourists who were visiting the emblematic Old Town Square at that early hour.
The launch of the Czech version of the novel was organized by Argo Publishing in cooperation with Prague City Tourism (PCT), and as previously announced, the first 100 readers received the book with a dedication from Brown.
Passionate fans of Langdon's adventures have waited eight years for this work , which will go on sale in Spanish tomorrow, September 10, published by Planeta.
" I've only read The Da Vinci Code by him, and I really liked it . He writes incredible detective novels, and this one takes place in Prague," said Jan Kratochvil, a student at Prague Polytechnic and one of the first to leave with his book under his arm.
"Now I'm hoping to go to bed, and tonight I'll get up and start reading it, although I don't think I'll finish it in a day," added a visibly tired Kratochvil, who had been queuing since 7 p.m. yesterday with his folding chair.
In the story, Langdon travels to the Czech capital to attend a revolutionary lecture given by Katherine Solomon, a brilliant noetic scientist with whom he has begun a relationship.
When she is about to publish her discovery about the nature of human consciousness, which promises to challenge centuries of established beliefs, several murders unleash chaos , and Katherine disappears without a trace.
"The hallmarks of Dan's books—code, art, history, religion, and science—shine brightly alongside a thrilling plot," said Nihar Malaviyau, head of Penguin Random House Global Publishing, in a statement.
People buy the first signed copies of Dan Brown's new book, The Secret of Secrets, in Prague. EFE/EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK
To avoid leaks in the run-up to the release, publishers, printers, and translators worked in secret and under strict confidentiality clauses.
The PCT agency also launched a tour today that visits the locations where the novel is set , including the baroque library of the Klementinum, the monument to the victims of Communism on Petrin Hill, and the atomic shelter in Folimanka in Nusle, which is not as well known to tourists and where some key murders in the story take place.
This shelter is open once a month to tourists and has an air vent shaped like R2 D2, the android from the movie Star Wars.
But not all locations are clearly specified, warned the Czech edition's translator, Michala Marková, at the launch event today. She has been working in a bunker all this time - with excellent views of the city, but with almost no internet access - and every night she had to leave everything she translated with her collaborator, David Petru, during the day in a safe.
Brown, 61, is scheduled to begin a month-long promotional tour in New York that will take him to 12 countries.
After two first books that went relatively unnoticed, the American author, a discreet high school teacher, published The Da Vinci Code in 2003, one of the biggest bestsellers in history.
Dan Brown is expected to arrive in Prague in person on the 18th for a press conference and a literary evening with readers.
With information from EFE and AFP.
Clarin
