The Lost Symbol
Novel 2009
In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world’s most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling–a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths… all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.
As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object–artfully encoded with five symbols–is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation… one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.
When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon–a prominent Mason and philanthropist–is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations–all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.
As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown’s novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown’s fans have been waiting for… his most thrilling novel yet.
Reviews
The wait is over. The Lost Symbol is here–and you don’t have to be a Freemason to enjoy it…THRILLING AND ENTERTAINING, LIKE THE EXPERIENCE ON A ROLLER COASTER.
– The Los Angeles Times
Dan Brown brings sexy back to a genre that had been left for dead…His code and clue-filled book is dense with exotica…amazing imagery…and the nonstop momentum that makes The Lost Symbol impossible to put down. SPLENDID…ANOTHER MIND-BLOWING ROBERT LANGDON STORY.
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Call it Brownian motion: A COMET TAIL-RIDE of beautifully spaced reveals and a socko unveiling of the killer’s true identity.
– The Washington Post
ROBERT LANGDON REMAINS A TERRIFIC HERO, a bookish intellectual who’s cool in a crisis and quick on his feet… The codes are intriguing, the settings present often-seen locales in a fresh light, and Brown keeps the pages turning.
– Entertainment Weekly
A FASCINATING PLEASURE…upends our usual assumptions about the world we think we know.
– Newsweek
BIZARRE FACTS
• Still performed today, the ancient ritual known as The Fifth Libation involves drinking wine from a human skull. This rite is detailed in many historical texts, including “Letters on the Masonic Institution” by President John Quincy Adams.
• One of Washington D.C.’s most pious and sacrosanct buildings includes on its façade a frightening carving… of Darth Vader.
• The largest museum collection in the world is not open to the public. It is housed in a massive structure that contains five “pods,” a “clean room,” a “dead zone,” and a twenty-foot giant squid.
• In 1991, a document was locked in the safe of the director of the CIA. The document is still there today. Its cryptic text includes references to an ancient doorway, a pyramid, and an unknown location underground. The document also contains the phrase: “It’s buried out there somewhere.”
