Pynchon novel due in August

Rumors have been circulating on the Internet this week that reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon is at work on a new book. On Friday, his publisher, Penguin Press, confirmed that it plans to release a novel from him next August.

As for the other rumored details -- that it’s a noir novel of about 400 pages, set in the world of 1960s psychedelia -- Penguin had nothing to say.

Pynchon has never been known for working fast. Fans waited 17 years after “Gravity’s Rainbow” for “Vineland,” and then seven more for “Mason & Dixon.” After nine more years, “Against the Day” was published in 2006.