Inventing the series of Robert Langdon novels at the turn of the century must have been for Dan Brown like finding the formula for a certain cola drink: the ingredients are on a label in front of everyone, ready to be replicated a thousand times anywhere, but there is something that eludes us.
The Last Secret, the sixth Langdon novel (Planeta, already in bookstores worldwide) has all the components of the formula: it has, to begin with, a geographically breathtakingly beautiful setting, a bit misty and theatrical in its literary description. This time, the city is Prague, portrayed in its baroque treasures but also in its socialist ruins.
"Prague was for a long time the mystical capital of Europe. The Kabbalists and magicians all came to Prague to try to communicate with the beyond," explained Brown this morning in the Czech city, during the luxurious novel presentation in Europe.
The Last Secret also has the other setting, the intellectual stage in which Brown has always operated. That is: the boundary between conventional science, apocryphal science, and the world of beliefs, between the rational explanation of the world and the reality that science does not understand and ignores. In that tension, his characters move, skeptics and believers who exchange roles and clash against a hidden power that would prefer to keep some areas in the shadows.
Robert Langdon is the skeptic. Katherine Solomon, his dance partner in the novel, is the woman who wants to believe. And around them, the classic Brown cast appears: the homicidal beast in the style of Silas from The Da Vinci Code, which here is the Golem, of course; the villain who is actually partly a victim; the villain's boss who pulls the strings and is odious, yes, but who also has a moral reason called raison d'état.
It is not surprising, therefore, that The Last Secret also has a subplot that refers to the Cold War, espionage agencies, and deep state theories... The novel spans 820 pages in its Spanish edition and, in a way, is a mix betweenThe X-Filesand those travel guides from El País Aguilar where the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge were meticulously drawn. It reads as if there were nothing else to do in life.
And one more fact: Langdon and Solomon are lovers. "It's because fiction imitates reality and I am a man in love," said Dan Brown yesterday.
Reality is behind fiction, yes: "I lost my mother seven years ago, she died of leukemia," Brown revealed. "And, like everyone, I wondered what happens when we die. That question unites us all. My answer back then was that nothing, that life ends and that dead people are like unplugged computers. Eight years later, after reading a lot on the subject, I believe that consciousness survives the body and that is a very exciting idea. And yet, I still consider myself a skeptic."
Hasn't that always been Dan Brown's focus? Peering into the mystery of life from the frameworks of science. Let's remember: the Robert Langdon series was born in 2000 with the release of Angels & Demons. In 2003 came The Da Vinci Code and changed the mold of what a global bestseller was. Followed by The Lost Symbol, Inferno, and Origin, set in Spain. The six novels are independent but interconnected. Katherine Solomon, the scientist in The Last Secret, had appeared in The Lost Symbol. And her field of research, noetics, the study of human consciousness, is what Brown has explored in all his novels.
"Science and religion are two different languages trying to tell the same story. Many scientists, as they progress in their knowledge, start to sound like mystics because they reach the limits of their science. They try to answer questions that elude us. In return, religion gives us comfort, but it is also problematic because it confronts us with the issue of the literal interpretation."
Katherine Solomon is the scientist who pushes the theory to its limits that consciousness is not something concrete located in some corner of people's brains but is a network of meanings external to our bodies. These nodes connect us through omens, mystical revelations, and moments of telepathy, all those moments that happen and we cannot explain. What happens in The Last Secret? Solomon is about to prove that theory and that's why she becomes a danger to the powers that govern the world.
Is the CIA after her?, they asked Brown in Prague. "Not that I know of," he replied.
The release of The Last Secret has been like a blockbuster movie. Dan Brown appeared in the Mirror Chapel before a crowd of publishers, booksellers, and journalists. He was greeted with a Baroque organ piece and then with an ovation, and the mayor of Prague handed him the keys to the city. Brown took it in good humor and then took the microphone. He said he once had a million words written and that he starts writing every morning at four. He mentioned that the television series about Robert Langdon that is in the works has his blessing and that he is a "non-religious" optimist when it comes to consciousness. In his opinion, very soon, "in less than five years, science will finally be able to understand what consciousness is."
"Are you an optimist? When the world is a mess," someone asked. "The world seems to be a mess, but I'm not sure it is," Brown replied. "We look at evil and danger because everything dark always attracts our gaze. Our minds focus on everything that goes wrong. But it is important to put into perspective the enormous horrors that do exist and think about the love and peace that occupy a large part of the world. 99% of what happens in the world is positive."