Origin Novel by Dan Brown. Origin is a mystery thriller novel by American author Dan Brown and the fifth installment in his Robert Langdon series, following Inferno. The book was released on October 3, 2017 by Doubleday. The book is predominantly set in Spain and features minor sections in Dubai and Budapest. Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to attend a major announcement, the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening's host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon's first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough.... one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.