'Origin'

Author: Dan Brown

Publisher: Bantam Press / 2017

Pages: 461

 

This is yet another novel from the author of more famous novels like The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, etc.

On one level one can read the novel as a travelogue - it starts from the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, moves to Barcelona and also to Madrid and ends in a glorious scene at the Sagrada Familia church, that masterpiece by Antonio Gaudi, in Barcelona.

The protagonist is Edmond Kirsch, a tech billionaire who is out to prove that all religions are fake. He comes up with a discovery that he intends to reveal at a special session at the Guggenheim. But he is killed.

His friend, Robert Langdon (we have already met him in other Brown novels) who happened to be on the spot, teams up with Ambra Vidal, the director of the Guggenheim and the girlfriend of Spain's next king to try and retrieve Kirsch's announcement and presentation, facing incredible obstacles.

Kirsch's revelation takes us on a long tour going far back in pre-history and looking ahead beyond what we can glimpse in the future.