“You do not find the Grail, the Grail finds you”

“The Da Vinci Code” is a historical fiction written by Dan Brown and published in 2003. It is the second part of a five-part-series.

The main protagonists are Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor, and the French cryptologist Sophie Neveu. After the curator of the Louvre, Jacques Saunière, has been murdered, Langdon is called to the scene to decipher a code which the murdered curator has written beside his body. But soon Langdon realizes that he is a suspect of the French police. With the help of Sophie Neveu he flees from the Louvre and deciphers Saunière’s code. As it turns out he was the Grand Master of a secret society called The Priory of Sion and had knowledge about secret, ancient documents, well known as the Holy Grail, which are coveted by many, especially the church and a catholic sect named Opus Dei. At this point a thrilling pursuit begins, in which they dig deeper and deeper into the history of the church and its antagonist The Priory of Sion. But will they be able to find the hidden documents and save them from the church? Who is the mysterious person who calls himself `The Teacher´? And which role does Opus Dei play?

These questions kept me reading and made me want to find out more about the characters and the plot although the language was sometimes rather challenging. The novel is well-written. Its narrative style makes it vivid. And combined with the clever structure and the many unexpected twists, the novel is thrilling until the end.

I strongly recommend the novel to readers of all ages because it contains heart-racing action scenes as well as well-investigated historical facts.

Anna (15)