Stephen Berard says his new book is the first novel written in Latin in more than 250 years.

The 63-year-old author says Capti is a tale of an autistic ballet dancer who travels from Seattle to Hollywood where he reconnects with his ex-wife (from whom he never really got a divorce) and becomes embroiled in a modern murder mystery.

I guess we’ll have to take his word for it.

Written over a dozen years, it’s the first in a series of seven novels he plans to publish in what many think is a lost language.

Berard says the last novel published in Latin was Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum, Ludvig Holberg’s 1754 adventure into a subterranean Utopian society.

While he admits he’s writing for a “niche market,” he hopes his book will spark a renaissance in the language.

“Latin has been a vehicle of western civilization,” he says. “When you learn Latin, you learn so much — linguistics, grammar, history; you learn to think clearly.

“It’s a language with so much cultural momentum. Latin has amazing durability.”

Berard says the Internet has allowed people interested in the language to connect no matter where they live.

The professor of world languages at Wenatchee Valley College, 150 kilometres east of Seattle, Wash., runs an annual week-long workshop where participants pledge to speak to each other only in Latin as they explore the mountains and urban landscapes.

“My ultimate goal would be to win a Nobel Prize for literature, something to really draw attention to it, to motivate people to learn Latin, not just because of ancient literature, but because it’s still happening.

“I hope to make it more vital.”

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Berard is also hoping a reviewer who can actually understand his book will step forward to wade through all 627 pages. It’s published by his own imprint, Cataracta, through Author House and is available in hardcover, paperback and e-book versions.

For information, go to http://tinyurl.com/6ejlsnw