Tom Egeland is a Norwegian author. His great-grandfather was Jon Flatab� from Kvam in Hardanger, one of the pioneer authors of popular literature in Norway. Egeland's novels are published in 24 languages. His most famous novel is Sirkelens ende, published in English under the title Relic, which deals with several of the same topics as The Da Vinci Code. Egeland's book was published in 2001, two years before The Da Vinci Code. European readers and critics quickly noted some striking similarities between the Da Vinci Code and Relic. Like The Da Vinci Code, Relic involves an ancient mystery and a worldwide conspiracy, the discovery that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and an albino as one of the central characters. In both novels, the main female character turns out to be the last living descendant of Christ and Mary Magdalene, and the daughter/granddaughter of the last grand master of a secret order. Many European readers have speculated that Dan Brown had plagiarized Tom Egeland's book. 

July 8th, 1959 in Oslo (Age 64)