Saturn Over the Water: A Novel

· Penguin Random House Audio
Audiobook
Eligible
This book will become available on May 11, 2027. You will not be charged until it is released.

About this audiobook

At the height of the Cold War, an English painter gets entangled in a web of international intrigue—one that may spell the end of the world—in a tale of suspense from one of the twentieth century’s great, underappreciated masters.

Tim Bedford is a reasonably successful landscape painter, living in London with all the creature comforts he might require. But when his dying cousin begs him to help find her missing husband, an old love of detective novels—and an itch for something more—comes to the surface. The missing man, Joe Farne, has disappeared from his post at the mysterious Arnaldous Research Institute in South America; the only clues to his whereabouts are on a scrap of paper, a list of unfamiliar names and places included with Farne’s last letter.

Tim’s amateur attempts to pick up a trail soon put him in the crosshairs of a shadowy organization with dark plans for humankind. His moves and counter-moves will take him from high society in London and New York to an ominous scientific center in Peru, a perturbing settlement in Chile, and finally an alarming climax in the mountains of Australia, where he comes face to face with a group hell-bent on mass control and their strange and terrifying new power. Can he and the forces for good in the world stand up to it?

First published in 1961, J. B. Priestley’s cinematic and stylish thriller brilliantly evokes the paranoia of the Cold War era—and draws on a darkly prescient vision of disinformation and manipulation in the digital age.
At the height of the Cold War, an English painter gets entangled in a web of international intrigue—one that may spell the end of the world—in a tale of suspense from one of the twentieth century’s great, underappreciated masters. Tim Bedford is a reasonably successful landscape painter, living ...

Discover more

About the author

J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) was a British playwright, critic, and broadcaster. He is known today primarily for his plays, especially An Inspector Calls—still widely performed—but he was also a bestselling novelist, and several of his books were adapted into film. A household name in his time, he was a popular broadcaster for the BBC during World War II, attracting audiences of up to fifteen million listeners; Graham Greene commented that he had become “a leader second only in importance to Mr. Churchill.” Following the war, he was a British delegate to UNESCO and a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and later received one of the highest royal honors, the Order of Merit.
J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) was a British playwright, critic, and broadcaster. He is known today primarily for his plays, especially An Inspector Calls—still widely performed—but he was also a bestselling novelist, and several of his books were adapted into film. A household name in his time, he ...

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.