Dan Brown's INFERNO Revealed

Inferno, Dan Brown's new book about Dante, is coming out on May 14, 2013 from Doubleday in the U.S., and Transworld Publishers in the UK (a division of Random House).

Brown announced that he was writing something new in May 2012. Though Brown had been cryptic about the topic of the book, he has now revealed more information.

The book will again feature The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol's lead character Robert Langdon. Brown also noted on The Today Show that it "will be set in Europe, in the most fascinating place I've ever seen" (we're guessing Florence, Italy since that's where Dante wrote, and Florence's Duomo church features on the cover of the book).

Transworld's press release for the book relates a bit more: the book will revolve around one of "history's most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces" (we're assuming Dante's Divine Comedy, with a focus on the Infernoportion, due to the title of the book).

A little background on this story: Dante's Divine Comedy is an epic poem written between 1308 and 1321. In the poem, Dante is led by Virgil through Hell (inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). According to the Italian Dante Society, no original manuscript by Dante survived, although there are around 825 that exist from the 13th and 14th centuries. Of 300 copies originally printed in 1472 (the year the first print edition came out), 14 survive.

The title was announced this morning on The Today Show. Readers were invited to participate in the unveiling of the title by posting on Facebook or tweeting, using the hashtag #DanBrownToday that they were helping unveil the title of Dan Brown's newest book. These readers' profile pictures then claimed a tile in a mosaic. After enough readers contributed their title suggestions, the new title was revealed. Even if you've never read a Dan Brown book, you can guess that the man really enjoys his puzzles.