Dan Brown's new book - The Lost Symbol

Press release:

DAN BROWN’S THE LOST SYMBOL TO BE PUBLISHED BY THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP IN SEPTEMBER 2009

New novel by the author of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons will have a global English language first print run of 6.5 million copies: the largest first print in the history of Random House worldwide

London, UK (April 20, 2009) – Dan Brown’s new novel, the eagerly awaited follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, his No. 1 international phenomenon with 81 million copies in print worldwide and the UK‘s biggest selling paperback novel of all time, will be published in the UK by Transworld Publishers, a division of The Random House Group, on September 15, 2009.

The Lost Symbol will have a global English language print run of 6.5 million copies, and it will once again feature Dan Brown’s unforgettable protagonist, Robert Langdon.

The announcement was made today by Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in the US and Gail Rebuck, Chair and CEO of The Random House Group in the UK.

“This is a great day for readers and booksellers,” said Mehta. “The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait.”

Rebuck said: “Publishing all of Dan Brown’s books in the UK has been a real privilege. The pure adrenalin thrill of reading his novels, combined with the fascinating insights into what might lie below the surface of our lives and our history, make him unique in the pantheon of contemporary writers. The arrival of this stunning new novel is a publishing event without compare. For us, and for the bookselling community across the world, it is nothing less than the most extraordinary publishing opportunity.”

Brown’s longterm US editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Random House Inc imprint Doubleday, said: “Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book’s narrative takes place in a 12-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises."

“This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey,” said Brown. “Weaving five years of research into the story’s 12-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine.”

The Da Vinci Code’s UK paperback edition (published in March 2004) spent more than two years (120 weeks) in the Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers list with 68 weeks spent at No.1 and is the UK’s bestselling paperback novel of all time.* The novel has been translated into 51 languages.

The film of The Da Vinci Code was a No. 1 box office smash when it was released by Columbia Pictures in May 2006 with Ron Howard directing and Tom Hanks starring as Robert Langdon. Box office receipts were $758 million. The same team will release Angels & Demons on May 15, 2009. To coincide with the new film, Transworld will publish the Angels & Demons Illustrated Movie Book and a new paperback edition of the novel featuring Tom Hanks on the cover.

Following the publication of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s earlier novels Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress have all gone on to become multi-million copy international bestsellers, and rank as the UK’s 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th bestselling adult paperback novels of all time.* The Random House Group in the UK has published all of Dan Brown’s novels, which were acquired and published by Bill Scott-Kerr of Transworld Publishers.

Dan Brown is represented by Heide Lange at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, Inc. Transworld Publishers is a division of UK-based The Random House Group, part of Random House, Inc. whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG. The Lost Symbol will be published in North America by Doubleday, an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.