1492

The year is 1492 — and the world is about to change forever.

Jayme de Marchena is a man living in the shadows. Of Jewish heritage in an Spain consumed by the Inquisition, he walks a razor's edge between survival and ruin. When the noose of suspicion tightens, a desperate gamble takes him aboard the fleet of a visionary Genoese captain named Christopher Columbus — and into the unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

What follows is an epic voyage of discovery, danger, and moral reckoning. From the intrigues of the Spanish court to the raw wonder of the New World, Jayme witnesses the birth of a new age — and the terrible human cost that comes with it. Mary Johnston gives Columbus's sailors their own voice, and through Jayme's kabbalistic eyes, the journey takes on a mystical depth rarely found in tales of exploration.

First published in 1922 and released in England as Admiral of the Ocean-Sea, 1492 is a richly imagined historical novel by one of America's most celebrated bestselling authors. Johnston — whose novel To Have and to Hold sold over half a million copies — brings her consummate storytelling to history's most pivotal year, crafting a narrative that is at once a rousing sea adventure and a profound meditation on faith, freedom, and the courage to sail beyond the edge of the known world.

This is history as you've never heard it — from the deck of the Santa María, in a voice that history almost forgot.

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Release date

Audiobook: 22 July 2026