Follow-Up to The Da Vinci Code in September

Hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't ask me when Dan Brown will be publishing a new book. And now we have an answer! His new novel, the eagerly awaited follow-up to his #1 international phenomenon, The Da Vinci Code, will be published in the US and Canada by Doubleday on September 15, 2009. The Lost Symbol will have a first printing of 5 million copies, and it will once again feature Dan Brown's unforgettable protagonist, Robert Langdon. The announcement was made yesterday by Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

"This is a great day for readers and booksellers," said Mehta."The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown's prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait."

Brown's longtime editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday said, "Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book's narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan's readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises."

"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," said Brown. "Weaving five years of research into the story's twelve-hour time frame was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."

The Da Vinci Code, published by Doubleday on March 18, 2003, spent 144 weeks on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction bestseller list, 54 of them at #1—the position at which it debuted. It was the bestelling hardcover adult novel of all time with 81 million copies in print worldwide. The novel has been translated into 51 languages.

The film based on The Da Vinci Code was a #1 box office smash when it was released by Columbia Pictures in May 2006 with Ron Howard directing and Tom Hanks starring as Robert Langdon. Box office receipts were $758 million. The same team will release Angels and Demons, based on another of Brown's Langdon novels, to theaters worldwide on May 15, 2009.

Brown is the son of a Presidential Award winning math professor and of a professional sacred musician. He initially had a songwriting career himself, before turning to writing. His wife, Blythe, is an art historian and painter who collaborates with him on his research. He has told fans that he often uses gravity boots to hang upside when faced with writer's block because doing so "seems to help me solve plot problems by shifting my entire perspective."

We will have The Lost Symbol at the store when it is released in September. Call or email us if you want to reserve a copy. (503-284-1726; bookbroads@qwestoffice.net)