Inferno
by Dan Brown
★ Top 25 book of 2013 · #15 on Best Books of 2013
Symbology professor Robert Langdon wakes up in Italy tangled in a puzzle built around Dante's Inferno. He moves through classic art and secret passageways, unsure whom to trust as a dangerous clock ticks.
Best for: Fans of fast-paced puzzle thrillers mixing art, history and codes
Inferno is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2013, out of 45 2013 books that cleared our data bar.
What Inferno is about
Robert Langdon wakes in a Florence hospital with a head wound and no memory of the past few days. Before he can make sense of anything, an assassin named Vayentha attacks, and Dr. Sienna Brooks helps him slip away. In his belongings he finds a Faraday Pointer that projects a altered version of Botticelli's Map of Hell, drawn from Dante's Inferno.
The trail leads through the Palazzo Vecchio, Dante's death mask, and the Florence Baptistry, where a riddle left by billionaire geneticist Bertrand Zobrist waits. Zobrist believed humanity's growth should be halted, and he was rumored to be building an engineered disease before taking his own life a week earlier. Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey of the WHO explains what his plague plan may involve. Published in 2013 as the fourth Langdon novel, it mixes art, history, and science with puzzle-solving pace. It suits readers who enjoy a chase through famous landmarks.
Inferno on the Best Books of 2013
Inferno came out in 2013. Of the 45 books first published in 2013 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #15 on our Best Books of 2013 list.
Why it made the list: 712 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.7 out of 5 (69 ratings); 32 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2013 list
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman, #13
- Bully Penelope Douglas, #14
- And the Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini, #16
- Contagious Jonah Berger, #17
See all Best Books of 2013 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2012 Best Books of 2014.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 545 want to read it, 32 are reading it now and 135 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.7 out of 5 from 69 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 84 | 55% |
| Reader love | 9 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 82 | 20% |
Questions about Inferno
When was Inferno published?
Inferno by Dan Brown was first published in 2013.
Was Inferno one of the best books of 2013?
Inferno is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2013, out of 45 2013 books that cleared our data bar. 712 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.7 out of 5 (69 ratings); 32 are reading it right now.
Why is Inferno on the Best Books of 2013 list?
712 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.7 out of 5 (69 ratings); 32 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2013
- House of Hades Rick Riordan, #1
- Hard Luck Jeff Kinney, #2
- Crown of Midnight Sarah J. Maas, #3
- The Screaming Staircase Jonathan Stroud, #4
- Unravel Me Tahereh Mafi, #5
- The Goldfinch Donna Tartt, #6
See the full Best Books of 2013, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
Find your own best books
Add what you have read, rate it, and BookWard will recommend what to read next.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.