The notion we're all alone in the world is an illusion

As Dan Brown's new thriller sees Robert Langdon tackling human consciousness and life after death, The Da Vinci Code author, in his only UK print interview, talks to the Express about ignoring the critics, amazing readers... and why AI can't replicate him

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“But it is something and it sounds quite unifying, quite enlightened, quite affirmative. All the adjectives you hear from people who have skirted the edges [of death] are incredibly positive and peaceful — the notion that we're all alone in the world is an illusion.”

less,” he tells me. “I’m not in any hurry but I’ve really come to understand that there is something beyond... I don’t think it’s any religion’s version of heaven or hell, it’s something else entirely.

Set in Prague, the action begins when Langdon, in town for a conference, returns to his hotel after a morning swim to discover his Princeton neuroscientist lover Katherine Solomon has vanished — along with the only hard copy of her new book. Solomon’s disappearance, Langdon realises, is linked to her work — which she insists will change our entire understanding of human consciousness (and has also been stolen from her New York publisher's server in an audacious hack).

But can he find her, and retrieve the manuscript, before it’s too late, in a chase through one of Europe’s most ancient and mysterious capitals?

“Prague is alleyways, secret passageways, towering spires. It’s ‘a dramatic city,” smiles Brown. “Tt’s custom-made for Langdon to get lost in.”

This protagonist, says Brown, is “really the guy I wish I could be”. “We share interests in symbolism and philosophy and art and architecture. He’s passionate about all the things ’'m passionate about but he’s much brighter than I am. And he lives a very exciting life. My life, of course, is spent primarily in the dark, alone in my pyjamas!”

Featuring CIA assassins, local thugs and a mysterious “Golem” (based on the famed Jewish folklore creature), the adventure unfolds at breakneck speed.