The Secret of Secrets

Sasha Vesna is the first test subject for project Threshold, the research facility at the heart of The Secret of Secrets. Although the novel presents Vesna and the Golem as two distinct individuals, it is revealed in the final chapters that the Golem is an alternate identity that emerged as a result of abuse Vesna faced as a teenager. Vesna is repeatedly described as “naïve” (204, 251, 466) and “vulnerable” (41, 594). As a result, the Golem emerges as her psychological protector. In order to distinguish himself from Vesna, the Golem covers his head and neck in a thick layer of mud, mimicking the appearance of the golem in Jewish mythology. The Golem’s masked appearance and male identity are intended to mislead readers into thinking he and Vesna are separate people.

The reveal that Vesna and the Golem exist in the same body seems to affirm Solomon’s arguments about nonlocal consciousness. The Golem confirms Solomon’s belief in the possibility of remote viewing, watching Vesna’s life as “a visitor in her mind, looking on in silence” (41). He also acts as a manifestation of Solomon’s metaphor of the brain as a radio capable of receiving “multiple distinct stations” (590). The Golem came into existence when Vesna “called out to the universe” (590) for help. This origin story suggests that a universal consciousness received a message from Vesna’s consciousness and expanded it in order to protect her. Finally, the Golem shows that Solomon is right to believe that it is possible to exert external control over a person’s psyche, highlighting the novel’s debate about The Nature of Human Consciousness.

Katherine Solomon is Robert Langdon’s long-time love interest and an important secondary character in The Secret of Secrets. She is four years older than Langdon, and he is attracted to her for her “deepening laugh lines, the faint wisps of gray in her dark hair; her playful eyes, and that mesmerizing intellect” (10). Solomon is depicted as a charismatic, world-famous noetic scientist whose new book will help revolutionize the study of consciousness. Solomon’s fame is signaled by the fact that the lecture she gives at the beginning of the novel is “standing room only” (12). This is intended to suggest that Solomon is Langdon’s intellectual equal, and that her ideas should be taken seriously.

Solomon is a round, static character who serves as a foil for Langdon’s skepticism. Solomon’s belief in nonlocal consciousness is based in her own experience. Solomon describes participating in a virtual reality experiment while at Princeton, during which she was “imbued with a blissful sensation that her consciousness was free and did not require a physical form to exist” (469). Even after the experiment ended and Solomon relocated herself, the experience stayed with her. Shortly after, Solomon decides to pursue noetic science fulltime. Solomon’s personal and scientific background inform her behavior in the novel. She explains to Langdon that even when presented with evidence suggesting that he had died, Solomon “trusted you were alive, Robert—I could feel it” (299). Whereas Langdon only changes his personal views when presented with empirical evidence, Solomon’s personal beliefs override empirical evidence in key moments. This keeps the novel’s dialog about The Nature of Human Consciousness open, as some truths aren’t easily explainable in rational terms, even to highly scientific minds.

Heide Nagel is the fictional American ambassador in Prague and a secondary protagonist in The Secret of Secrets. She is a flat character described as woman in her sixties with black hair whose “quotidian attire seemed calculated to downplay her influence” (203). Although initially presented as a villain, Nagel becomes an important source of support for Robert Langdon in the second half of the novel. Nagel’s decision to disobey the direct orders of CIA Director Judd and Q Director Finch is attributed to her resentment of their exploitation of her and her desire to atone for her involvement in Threshold. Nagel was named ambassador after Finch arranged for her to be fired from her position at the CIA. Nagel is repeatedly referred to as a “pawn” (276, 382), suggesting that she lacks any true power, despite her diplomatic posting.

Nagel’s motivations change when she learns about the death of Michael Harris, a staff member she manipulated into spying on the woman who eventually murders him. Nagel tells Langdon and Solomon that she will do “whatever is required” (385) to protect them in order to “start making amends for Michael” (385). She applies the same logic to helping Sasha Vesna, explaining that “Sasha is a victim of my government” (514). Nagel’s emotional turmoil over her actions is closely tied to the novel’s thematic interest in The Ethics of National Security.

Jonas Faukman is Robert Langdon’s editor at Penguin Random House, and an important secondary character in The Secret of Secrets. His name is an anagram of author Dan Brown’s real life editor, Jason Kaufman. Faukman is defined by his job as an editor, and the novel suggests that editorial work empowers Faukman to solve mysteries in the same way symbology empowers Langdon. Faukman’s “old school” (76) editorial quirks—like printing out the manuscript and editing it manually—make him an important part of Langdon and Solomon’s team: When Solomon’s manuscript is deleted from secure servers, Faukman is revealed to have a hard copy. This ultimately buys Solomon and Langdon valuable time as Q agents scramble to neutralize the threat.

Faukman’s experience as an editor also enables him to act as an action hero himself in the novel’s New York-based subplot. When he is kidnapped, Faukman recalls that he “had experienced plenty of terrifying moments before […] in the pages of the suspense novels he had edited” (108). Faukman uses the knowledge gained from editing novels to help him escape capture, including a moment when he tried to emulate “the hero from one of his most popular bestseller series—a spy who consistently beat lie detectors using three simple steps” (110). Although Faukman is not successful in beating the lie detector, his willingness to draw from his work to solve mysteries suggests that, like Langdon, his scholarly profession is an asset, rather than a hindrance.