Dan Brown brings back Robert Langdon to dominate the publishing market

Two hundred and fifty million copies sold. Very few figures in the publishing world come close to the numbers accumulated by American author Dan Brown (New Hampshire, 1964). Interestingly, Ken Follett, who could be a good rival, is also visiting Spain these days. Brown, the author of 'The Da Vinci Code', is publishing the sixth installment of that saga, featuring Professor Robert Langdon. It's titled 'The Final Secret', set in Prague, which, before being published, already secured a contract with Netflix for a series by one of the producers of 'Lost', though it is unknown if Tom Hanks will reprise his leading role. The writer is delighted: "Adaptations are a different language. It's like sending your child to university, you just hope to at least still recognize them when they return. Now we'll have eight hours to tell the book, not just two like in the movies."

Throughout its 830 pages, Langdon will once again solve the usual puzzles surrounded by symbols, living history, and dark organizations that keep the truth well guarded. Brown makes no secret of it: "First and foremost, this book is a thriller. A chase, a treasure hunt. But beneath all that, there's a lot of science, all of it documented and real." The writer refers to several experiments conducted in recent years, highly debated and far from reaching real consensus, which have convinced him that we are about to see how our conception of human consciousness and life after death changes forever.

Whoever convinced Brown has done the same with Langdon: "He, like me, is a skeptic. His journey in the novel to accepting 'noetics' mirrors my own. My experience writing this book has completely changed my view of life after death." According to Brown, these experiments would indicate that human consciousness is not within the body, but comes from outside, from a kind of universal consciousness. "It's true that there are scientists on both sides of this equation. Some say it's madness, and others say it's real. They agree on the data, on what happens, but not on why it happens." Brown insists that he had no religious epiphany, but was convinced by the data, the experiments, and invites readers to be curious and continue researching from reading the book.

Since the year 2000, the writer has had an intimate relationship with his most famous character. "Langdon is the man I would love to be, he has a much more interesting life than mine. We are very connected, and at the end of each book, it feels very strange. Now, during the promotion, it's very odd to talk about him in the third person."

Prague, the mystical city

After setting other installments in Paris, Florence, or Barcelona, it's now Prague's turn. "It had to be Prague. It's been the mystical capital of Europe since the 16th century when Emperor Rudolf II invited all alchemists, Kabbalists, and seers to help him be a better leader. Prague is a beautiful character: it has cathedrals, underground sanctuaries, a door with seven locks... it was a somewhat obvious choice."

Brown is seasoned in receiving any kind of criticism: "It may sound naive, but when I wrote 'The Da Vinci Code' I didn't expect it to be controversial. I simply wondered what it would mean for Christianity if Jesus was not literally the Son of God, but a mortal prophet with very good ideas. These are the kinds of questions that could be asked in my family, but obviously not everyone considered them possible. I don't think 'The Final Secret' will be as controversial, although I might be wrong." For Brown, any controversy that results in creative dialogue is good. The opposite, for him, is one of the evils of this world: "Everyone talks and no one listens. We need dialogue and curiosity."