Best-selling American author Dan Brown, famed for The Da Vinci Code, has released his latest thriller, The Secret of Secrets, in 16 languages simultaneously.
The nearly 700-page novel marks Brown’s return after an eight-year break since Origin. He described the work as “by far the most intricately plotted and ambitious novel I’ve written to date.”
Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House Global, said: “The hallmarks of Dan’s books — codes, art, history, religion, and cutting-edge science — are on full display alongside a propulsive plot.”
To guard against leaks, publishers, printers, and translators worked under strict confidentiality agreements in the run-up to release.
Brown, 61, launched a month-long promotional tour in New York on Tuesday, which will take him to 12 countries. Early reviews have been mixed: The New York Times praised the novel’s ambition while noting its “hyperventilating prose”, whereas The Guardian dismissed it as “weapons-grade nonsense from beginning to end”.
Brown rose to international fame in 2003 with The Da Vinci Code, a publishing phenomenon that sold millions of copies worldwide while drawing criticism from scholars for historical inaccuracies. According to Penguin Random House, he has sold more than 250 million books in 56 languages.