Something New Under the Sun
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Something New Under the Sun Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Alexandra Kleeman (Author), Marin Ireland (Narrator), Fourth Estate (Publisher)
3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 226 ratings
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A bold, addictive and urgent new novel about capitalism, environmental collapse and our near future.

What is really going on?

Patrick Hamlin has come to Hollywood to see his novel be adapted for the screen, but why does he get the feeling that the film project is a smokescreen for something else? Does Cassidy Carter, the troubled starlet due to play the lead, know something he doesn’t? And what is the truth about WAT-R, the synthetic water everyone drinks in LA?

Sharply funny, alluring and devastating, Something New Under the Sun is an unmissable novel for our present moment.

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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 13 minutes
  2. Author
    Alexandra Kleeman
  3. Narrator
    Marin Ireland
  4. Audible release date
    August 3, 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Fourth Estate
  7. ASIN
    B09BBDCKW8
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 13 minutes
Author Alexandra Kleeman
Narrator Marin Ireland
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 03, 2021
Publisher Fourth Estate
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B09BBDCKW8
Best Sellers Rank #604,333 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#434 in City Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#2,012 in Urban Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#3,428 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars
3.4 out of 5
226 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joanne H Reader
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but..
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2021
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Interesting story but doesn't live up to the hype. Disjointed
2 people found this helpful
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RTM
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Novel I Have Yet Read Involving Climate Change
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021
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Up and coming American writer Alexandra Kleeman creates a fascinating multi-layered novel set in a near future "Hotel Hell" Southern California. East Coast writer Patrick Hamlin travels to LA to try to keep a film adaptation of his book from spinning out of control. He encounters swarmy, corrupt producers, incompetent production staff, and a famous but unstable starlet, Cassidy Carter. Patrick also lands in a (literally) hostile physical environment, with scorching heat, never ending fires, and an extreme scarcity of water. Residents have to buy a substitute, called WAT-R, produced by a shadowy corporation which has far too much power. As you might imagine, greed and corruption are a byproduct of this environmental crisis. Patrick becomes a kind of chaperone for Cassidy, and they form an unlikely detective team trying to investigate the links between WAT-R and a growing type of dementia which affects younger people. This book combines a Hollywood satire, a mystery, and a scary commentary on a (quite possible) future environmental catastrophe. There are more aspects to the plot, including Patrick's wife and daughter joining a bizarre nature cult. Holding all of this together would be a challenge for any writer, but Kleeman somehow does this, although there are some absurdist elements, and an ending which may disappoint some readers. If there is an underlying theme, it is that the characters, and local residents in general, seem to adapt without much resistance to their city becoming more and more toxic. Given the numerous large wildfires and serious drought conditions already becoming the "norm" for much of the Western US, Kleeman's dystopian vision is alarmingly close to present reality. Overall, this book provided one of the most interesting reading experiences I have had in a long time.
6 people found this helpful
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David
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, strange, but moving
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2022
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I titled this review the same as the one I wrote for Kleeman's debut novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine because it also applies to this one. If you liked her first, you should enjoy this as well. Once again, her narrative is shot through with unease and eeriness when in a not-too-distant California water has been replaced by WAT-R, a manufactured substitute that just might be the cause of a growing number of cases of dementia among victims of all ages. Patrick Hamlin, a novelist whose book is being adapted freely into a schlocky movie, teams up with Cassidy Carter, the film's young starlet whose career is floundering after several scandals (think Lindsay Lohan) to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. Don't expect much insight into Hollywood or the world of film, as Kleeman seems as interested in the filmmaking process as Don DeLillo was in football in End Zone. It is a means to examine the cruelty of stardom and the corporatization of art and to bring together her mismatched pair, not to mention the hilarious duo of Arm and Horeshoe, PAs who fill the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern roles. We are also introduced to Patrick's wife and daughter who are at a commune on the East Coast where they mourn the losses wrought by climate change. If you demand everything to "make sense" or for all the world-building to be explained, you will be disappointed. However, if you allow it wash over you and carry you along like a dream (or nightmare) you will be rewarded. There are touches of DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, and David Lynch; so, paranoid, surreal, but often moving and beautiful. In some ways the novel itself is like one of the mourning prayers said at the commune, a celebration of the natural world that we are destroying for ourselves but that will inevitably outlast our species.
One person found this helpful
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Stephen Smith
1.0 out of 5 stars A promising tale disappears in thin air
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2022
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Alexandra Kleeman has terrific powers of description, but she's not much of a story teller. "Something New" gets off to a wobbly start, with a shaggy story about a book author who accepts a menial job with the film company which is turning his book into a movie. You expect a sarcastic, satirical comedy like something out of Terry Southern. The Left Coast is awash in a water-substitute called WAT-R (clever). Nothing much happens for the first few hundred pages (of a 350-page book), until the realization that WAT-R is causing something like dementia in all who drink it. A good premise for sci-fi, fersure, but here it's the writing that's becoming demented. The behavior of Patrick, book author, and Cassidy, the puckish star of the film being made, becomes more and more erratic, as they caper around in the desert in an End-of-Days scenario. Well, what remains of the plot disappears up its own tail and the reader is left with a feeling of abandonment. Not resolution, not satisfaction. Nothing. Nothing at all.
6 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Is it on purpose?
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2021
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A book on a high. A woman with environmental depression. His thirsty husband wanna be movie writer and their funky long distance relationship. Read it till the end cause I kept trying to make sense of it, but no se se at all.
4 people found this helpful
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Kendra Frautnick
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting take on almost dystopian times
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2021
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A little close to home as we live through the evolution of climate change and drought, a little slow to start and top quick at the end, I got more into the book in the middle.
One person found this helpful
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Terry Kleeman
5.0 out of 5 stars Can a climate change novel be funny, poignant, and moving all a the same time? YESTh
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2021
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This novel is both alarming and witty, revealing the horror of a near future that is dreadful yet not totally hopeless. I like most is the invention of "something new" and also the subtle attention paid to the non-human world around us. The writing is sharp and beautiful.
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Robert Dixon
4.0 out of 5 stars clever dystopian
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2022
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This is a really well written and well plotted book. I didn’t like it but I appreciate it. I think it just wasn’t the right book for me right now
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

pencil
5.0 out of 5 stars Ballardian, and there's no higher praise
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2023
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The Ballard/Pynchon mashup you didn't know you were looking for. What a great read, totally original and fresh.
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Oliver Gill
4.0 out of 5 stars Something New Under The Sun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2023
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The description of acute eco anxiety is exceptionally detailed, and the story of water conspiring to create dementia almost plausible. Z book I recommend if the current climate crisis is freaking
you out
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